Apostrophe doesn't get translated properly when placed in a resource bundle

Question

Apostrophe doesn't get translated properly when placed in a resource bundle.

key = {0}'s brush is {1} centimeters tall

(e.g. Sam's brush is 4 centimeters tall)

The apostrophe gets missed if I format the above key from a java.util.ResourceBundle What could be the problem here?

+1 I ran into this problem myself and wrote a small blog post about it. Maybe it can provide additional information for people running into this "feature": http://www.mscharhag.com/2013/10/single-quote-escaping-in-java-resource.html — micha, Oct 04 '13 at 17:30

score 141 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 15 '10 at 12:02

141

You should escape the single quote as

key = {0}''s brush is {1} centimeters tall

answered Dec 15 '10 at 12:02

Raghuram

51,854
11
110
122

Nice answer. This has solved my issue with single quotes. Thanks :) +1 – Anish B. May 26 '20 at 05:57
This has solved my issue too after spending over one hour with other solutions – samith kumarasingha Mar 04 '21 at 09:48
1

This is one of those things I'm not going to tell anyone at work that I googled. Thank you. – Ben Bynum May 31 '21 at 17:17

score 37 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 15 '10 at 12:02

I strongly belive that the problem is not the ressource bundle but the MessageFormater you use to print the message:

From MessageFormater java doc:

Within a String, '' (two single quotes ) represents a single quote. A QuotedString can contain arbitrary characters except single quotes; the surrounding single quotes are removed. An UnquotedString can contain arbitrary characters except single quotes and left curly brackets. Thus, a string that should result in the formatted message '{0}' can be written as '''{'0}'' or '''{0}'''.

So you need to write:

{0}''s brush is {1} centimeters tall

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 02 '16 at 07:32

Adding to @Ralph's answer: You will realize that this is a MessageFormat thing when you have a text like

text1=It's too late

versus

text2={0}''s too late

text1 would probably not run through a MessageFormater (e.g. spring has different code paths if arguments are passed or not), whereas text2 would. So if you used two single quotes in text1, they may / will display as such. So you'll need to check if any arguments get formatted in or not and use one or two single quotes accordingly.

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 13 '17 at 10:06

6

Look at the javadoc here

Within a String, "''" represents a single quote. A QuotedString can contain arbitrary characters except single quotes; the surrounding single quotes are removed. An UnquotedString can contain arbitrary characters except single quotes and left curly brackets. Thus, a string that should result in the formatted message "'{0}'" can be written as "'''{'0}''" or "'''{0}'''".

edited Jan 13 '17 at 10:06

alfonx

6,936
2
49
58

answered Dec 15 '10 at 12:04

Aravind Yarram

78,777
46
231
327

I have issue when use double quote with a message without {} or no args. When that MessageFormat will not process and return raw message. You need to turn on option **alwaysUseMessageFormat** to MessageFormat always processes. – duyetpt Jun 14 '22 at 04:21

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 24 '16 at 16:00

5

If you are completely stuck, as I was (none of the above worked), you can replace the apostrophe sign with its Unicode: \u0027. Remember you are always allowed to use UTF symbol in your properties file.

answered Jun 24 '16 at 16:00

Nestor Milyaev

5,845
2
35
51

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 15 '10 at 12:03

5

You need to double single quote i.e. {0}''s brush is {1} centimeters tall

answered Dec 15 '10 at 12:03

Samuel Parsonage

3,077
1
18
21

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 15 '10 at 12:25

2

Consider using Properties Editor plugin (for Eclipse)

http://propedit.sourceforge.jp/index_en.html

answered Dec 15 '10 at 12:25

Danubian Sailor

1
38
145
223

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 30 '14 at 17:02

1

For everyone that has Android problems in the string.xml, use \'\' instead of single quote.

answered Jul 30 '14 at 17:02

Uriel Frankel

14,304
8
47
69

Apostrophe doesn't get translated properly when placed in a resource bundle

8 Answers8

Linked