How to get current language code with Swift?

Question

I want get the language code of the device (en, es...) in my app written with Swift. How can get this?

I'm trying this:

var preferredLanguages : NSLocale!
let pre = preferredLanguages.displayNameForKey(NSLocaleIdentifier, value: preferredLanguages)

But this returns nil.

Answer 1

In Swift 3

let langStr = Locale.current.languageCode

Answer 2

It's important to make the difference between the App language and the device locale language (The code below is in Swift 3)

Will return the Device language:

let locale = NSLocale.current.languageCode

Will return the App language:

let pre = Locale.preferredLanguages[0]

Answer 3

Swift 4 & 5:

Locale.current.languageCode

Answer 4

Swift 3 & 4 & 4.2 & 5

Locale.current.languageCode does not compile regularly. Because you did not implemented localization for your project.

You have two possible solutions

1) String(Locale.preferredLanguages[0].prefix(2)) It returns phone lang properly.

If you want to get the type en-En, you can use Locale.preferredLanguages[0]

2) Select Project(MyApp)->Project (not Target)-> press + button into Localizations, then add language which you want.

Answer 5

TL;DR:

Use Bundle.main.preferredLocalizations[0] to get the language your app's UI is currently displayed in. Don't use Locale.current because it describes the region format (time, currency, distance, etc) and has nothing to do with language.

Detailed Answer:

The definite answer about how to get the language(!) code for the language your app's UI is displayed in comes from Apple engineer Quinn "The Eskimo", and I quote/paraphrase for Swift:

Locale.current returns the current locale, that is, the value set by Settings > General > Language & Region > Region Formats. It has nothing to do with the language that your app is running in. It's perfectly reasonable, and in fact quite common, for users in the field to have their locale and language set to 'conflicting' values. For example, a native English speaker living in France would have the language set to English but might choose to set the locale to French (so they get metric weights and measures, 24 time, and so on).

The language that your app runs in is determined by the language setting, that is, Settings > General > Language & Region > Preferred Language Order. When the system runs your app it takes this list of languages (the preferred list) and matches it against the list of languages that your app is localised into (the app list). The first language in the preferred list that exists in the app list is the language chosen for the app. This is what you'll find in the first entry of the main bundle's preferredLocalizations array.

Language Name from Code

To get the human-readable name of a language from its code, you can use this:

let langCode = Bundle.main.preferredLocalizations[0]
let usLocale = Locale(identifier: "en-US")
var langName = ""
if let languageName = usLocale.localizedString(forLanguageCode: langCode) {
    langName = languageName
}
        

This will give you the English name of the current UI language.

Answer 6

In Swift 3:

NSLocale.current.languageCode

Answer 7

To get current language used in your app (different than preferred languages)

NSLocale.currentLocale().objectForKey(NSLocaleLanguageCode)!

Answer 8

swift 3

let preferredLanguage = Locale.preferredLanguages[0] as String
print (preferredLanguage) //en-US

let arr = preferredLanguage.components(separatedBy: "-")
let deviceLanguage = arr.first
print (deviceLanguage) //en

Answer 9

Locale.current.languageCode returns me wrong code, so I use these extensions:

extension Locale {
    static var preferredLanguageCode: String {
        guard let preferredLanguage = preferredLanguages.first,
              let code = Locale(identifier: preferredLanguage).languageCode else {
            return "en"
        }
        return code
    }
    
    static var preferredLanguageCodes: [String] {
        return Locale.preferredLanguages.compactMap({Locale(identifier: $0).languageCode})
    }
}

Answer 10

Swift 5.4:

let languagePrefix = Locale.preferredLanguages[0]
print(languagePrefix)

Answer 11

you may use the below code it works fine with swift 3

var preferredLanguage : String = Bundle.main.preferredLocalizations.first!

Answer 12

I want to track the language chosen by the user in Settings app every time the user launches my app - that is not yet localized (my app is in English only). I adopted this logic:

1. create an enum to to make it easier to handle the languages in array

   enum Language: String {
   
   case none = ""
   case en = "English"
   case fr = "French"
   case it = "Italian"
   
   } // add as many languages you want
   

2. create a couple of extension to Locale

   extension Locale {
   
       static var enLocale: Locale {
   
           return Locale(identifier: "en-EN")
       } // to use in **currentLanguage** to get the localizedString in English
   
       static var currentLanguage: Language? {
   
           guard let code = preferredLanguages.first?.components(separatedBy: "-").last else {
   
               print("could not detect language code")
   
               return nil
           }
   
           guard let rawValue = enLocale.localizedString(forLanguageCode: code) else {
   
               print("could not localize language code")
   
               return nil
           }
   
           guard let language = Language(rawValue: rawValue) else {
   
               print("could not init language from raw value")
   
               return nil
           }
           print("language: \(code)-\(rawValue)")
   
           return language
       }
   }
   

3. When you need, you can simply use the extension

   if let currentLanguage = Locale.currentLanguage {
       print(currentLanguage.rawValue)
       // Your code here.
   }
   

Answer 13

In Swift, You can get the locale using.

let locale = Locale.current.identifier

Answer 14

This is what I use in Swift 5 Xcode 11:

Inside the class variables:

let languagePrefix = Bundle.main.preferredLocalizations.first?.prefix(2)

This comes as a string. It returns 2 characters, i.e. "en", "es", "de"...

From this I can easily determine what language to display:

 if languagePrefix == "es" { self.flipCard.setTitle("última carta", for: .normal) }
 if languagePrefix == "en" { self.flipCard.setTitle("Last Card", for: .normal) }

If you want the full information of the language, then remove ?.prefex(2)

Answer 15

in most cases you want to get the language code of the current app UI, to send over an API to get localized response

extension Bundle {
    
    var currentLocalizedUILanguageCode: String {
        guard let code = Bundle.main.preferredLocalizations.first?.components(separatedBy: "-").first else {
            return Locale.current.languageCode ?? "en"
        }
        return code
    }
    
}

use like

headers["X-Language"] = Bundle.main.currentLocalizedUILanguageCode

Answer 16

var languageCode = ""
 if #available(iOS 16.0, *) {
   if let language = NSLocale.current.language.languageCode {
     languageCode = language.identifier
   }
 } else {
   if let language = NSLocale.current.languageCode {
     languageCode = language
   }
 }

Answer 17

use this function for get your system's current language code from iOS devices

    func getSystemLanguageCode() -> String {
    UserDefaults.standard.removeObject(forKey: "AppleLanguages")
    let pref_Language = NSLocale.preferredLanguages[0] as String //"fr-IN"
    let language = pref_Language.components(separatedBy: "-") //["fr","IN"]
    let lang_Code = language.first?.lowercased() ?? "" //"fr"
    UserDefaults.standard.set([lang_Code], forKey: "AppleLanguages")
    
    return lang_Code
}

Answer 18

Almost none of the answers are correct. This is a working Swift 5.7 solution. ""

extension Locale {
    // Gets the language of the device, had to remove the content of AppleLanguages since `preferredLanguages`
    // is combining the result from multiple APIs. AppleLanguage is then set to the old value
    static var preferredLanguageCode: String {
        let appleLanguages = UserDefaults.standard.stringArray(forKey: "AppleLanguages")
        UserDefaults.standard.removeObject(forKey: "AppleLanguages")

        guard let preferredLanguage = preferredLanguages.first,
              let code = Locale(identifier: preferredLanguage).languageCode else {
            UserDefaults.standard.set(appleLanguages, forKey: "AppleLanguages")
            return "en"
        }
        UserDefaults.standard.set(appleLanguages, forKey: "AppleLanguages")
        return code
    }
}