localization-patterns

Localization Patterns for Mobile

Android

strings.xml Resources

<!-- res/values/strings.xml (default - English) -->
<resources>
    <string name="app_name">MyApp</string>
    <string name="welcome_message">Welcome, %1$s!</string>
    <string name="price_format">%1$s %2$.2f</string>

    <string-array name="categories">
        <item>Electronics</item>
        <item>Clothing</item>
        <item>Books</item>
    </string-array>

    <plurals name="items_count">
        <item quantity="zero">No items</item>
        <item quantity="one">%d item</item>
        <item quantity="other">%d items</item>
    </plurals>
</resources>

<!-- res/values-es/strings.xml (Spanish) -->
<resources>
    <string name="app_name">MiApp</string>
    <string name="welcome_message">Bienvenido, %1$s!</string>

    <plurals name="items_count">
        <item quantity="one">%d elemento</item>
        <item quantity="other">%d elementos</item>
    </plurals>
</resources>

<!-- res/values-ar/strings.xml (Arabic - RTL) -->
<resources>
    <string name="welcome_message">%1$s ,مرحبًا</string>

    <plurals name="items_count">
        <item quantity="zero">لا عناصر</item>
        <item quantity="one">عنصر واحد</item>
        <item quantity="two">عنصران</item>
        <item quantity="few">%d عناصر</item>
        <item quantity="many">%d عنصرًا</item>
        <item quantity="other">%d عنصر</item>
    </plurals>
</resources>

String Formatting with Arguments

// Positional arguments: %1$s = first string, %2$d = second integer
// strings.xml: <string name="greeting">Hello %1$s, you have %2$d new messages</string>

val formatted = context.getString(R.string.greeting, userName, messageCount)

// Plurals
val itemsText = context.resources.getQuantityString(
    R.plurals.items_count,
    count,  // quantity selector
    count   // format argument
)

Compose Localization

@Composable
fun WelcomeScreen(userName: String, itemCount: Int) {
    Column {
        Text(text = stringResource(R.string.welcome_message, userName))
        Text(text = pluralStringResource(R.plurals.items_count, itemCount, itemCount))
    }
}