Android. How change default locale fo string.xml in values

Question

I have an application with only russian locale. If I am not mistaken, the string.xml in the res/values is the english locale by default. But english and russian have different plurals. For example:

In russian:

1,21,31..x1 книга
2-4, 2(2-4), 3(2-4), .., x(2-4) книги
in other cases - книг

In english:

1 book
n books

Problems begin when the user changes system language from russian to other language. How can I change default language for my application? Or maybe it is possible to force the application to use the russian plurals?

@vladimir Did you see this question : [set-locale-programatically](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4985805/set-locale-programatically), you can force to use any language. I can show you if you dont get any idea by looking question. — Yasin Kaçmaz, Jul 01 '16 at 11:45
Yes, but it does not answer my question. I need that would be the default string.xml used russian plurals. — Владимир Широков, Jul 01 '16 at 11:52
Please read my question carefully). I have all my strings in default folder. string.xml in default values uses english plurals, not russian. I have problem: "1 книга", but always "n книг". Such in english: "1 book", "n books". But this is wrong for russian. — Владимир Широков, Jul 01 '16 at 12:04
Hi @ВладимирШироков! Have you found an answer for this? — gmazzo, May 11 '18 at 13:26
Hi @gmazzo! Unfortunately not. You probably need to add the translation to English. Or handle problem words manually. Or leave it as it is. — Владимир Широков, May 14 '18 at 13:43

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered May 14 '18 at 21:16

4

I finally found the answer: https://developer.android.com/studio/write/tool-attributes#toolslocale

<resources xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
tools:locale="es">

From the doc:

This tells the tools what the default language/locale is for the resources in the given element (because the tools otherwise assume English) in order to avoid warnings from the spell checker. The value must be a valid locale qualifier.

answered May 14 '18 at 21:16

gmazzo

1,135
13
15

This does not change the way plurals work in the app, only changes behavior for lint. With English set on device it will still show wrong plurals. – V-master Apr 05 '22 at 11:54

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 01 '16 at 11:27

0

you can create different String.xml files

like this

values/
           strings.xml
       values-es/
           strings.xml
       values-fr/
           strings.xml

Check google official document https://developer.android.com/training/basics/supporting-devices/languages.html & https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/localization.html

answered Jul 01 '16 at 11:27

Sachin

1,307
13
23

1

That does not answer my question. values - folder by default. I have only one language. But default uses english plurals. – Владимир Широков Jul 01 '16 at 11:47

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 01 '16 at 11:54

create new value folder values-ru and place string.xml in that.

in java change your app language programatically with this code. for change to rushion call method with ru parameter like this changeLanguage("ru").

public void changeLanguage(String languageToLoad) {
        //for language change
        Locale locale = new Locale(languageToLoad);
        Locale.setDefault(locale);
        Configuration config = new Configuration();
        config.locale = locale;
        getResources().updateConfiguration(config, getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
    }

Android. How change default locale fo string.xml in values

3 Answers3