Android Strings.XML Regional file overrides language file?

Question

I am trying to localize my app and have a few doubts. i have translate strings in spanish language and i am trying to be very specific with Region codes, so I named the folders as values-es_rES, values-es_rUS and values-es_rMX. Now there are more countries and users who like to use spanish language so i created a generic values-es folder.

I am wondering can android automatically push all mexico, US and Spain users to respective languages under their region codes and can others like chile, peru will be shown values-es language rather than my default US English?

It depends on the System Locale on the phone itself. If you change your phone's locale your app will default to Spanish as well. — LightYearsBehind, Oct 07 '13 at 15:41
Duplicate of this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5153674/android-localization-question — Mike P., Oct 07 '13 at 15:41

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 07 '13 at 15:55

0

You have two options

Use the language-region locale (ie. es_ES for Spanish/Spain or es_PE for Spanish/Peru)
Use MNC/MCC codes in your resource folders, which will take presence over the locale ones.

The way you have described it, all users with a defined locale of es_XX (any region) will go to your "values-es" folder, but the US user will not, unless the US user has configured "es_US" as their locale.

Take a look at Table 2 at http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/providing-resources.html

Remember that if an asset is missing from "es_ES" it will get it from "es", so only change those that are different.

answered Oct 07 '13 at 15:55

s1m3n

623
6
21

You have pointed exact problem I am facing "but the US user will not, unless the US user has configured "es_US" as their locale." Actually my problem is I have 2 module projects (apps App1 and App2) into the same repo, both apps have values_zh and values-zh-rTW. When I set a custom locale of the device to zh_US then the App1 picks up string from values_zh but App2 is picking from values-zh-rTW instead of values-zh. But if I add values-zh-rUS to App2 then it pick it from there. But I don't want it to pick up from values-zh (Since US can fall in to Any Region). Any idea??? TIA – Vinayak Bevinakatti Oct 23 '20 at 15:23
Typo in above comment "But I wanted it to pick up from values-zh". Here is my question, feel free to answer - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64503285/android-does-not-pick-up-strings-xml-from-any-region-for-ex-values-zh-specific – Vinayak Bevinakatti Oct 23 '20 at 15:52

Android Strings.XML Regional file overrides language file?

1 Answers1