How to format localised strings in Swift?

Question

I am learning to localise my app to Simplified Chinese. I am following this tutorial on how to do this.

Because the tutorial is based on Obj-C, formatted strings can be written like this:

"Yesterday you sold %@ apps" = "Ayer le vendi&oacute; %@ aplicaciones";

"You like?" = "~Es bueno?~";

But I am using Swift. And in Swift I don't think you can use %@ to indicate that there is something to be placed there. We have string interpolation right?

My app is kind of related to maths. And I want to display which input(s) is used to compute the result in a detailed label of a table view cell. For example

--------------
1234.5678
From x, y <---- Here is the detailed label
--------------

Here, From x, y means "The result is computed from x and y". I want to translate this to Chinese:

从 x, y 得出

Before, I can just use this:

"From \(someVariable)"

with the strings file:

"From" = "从 得出";

And this is how I would use it in code

"\(NSLocalizedString("From", comment: "")) \(someVariable)"

But if this were used in the Chinese version, the final string will be like this:

"从 得出 x, y"

I mean I can put the 从 and 得出 in two different entries in the strings file. But is there a better way to do it?

Martin R · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-20 08:12:44Z

85

You can use %@ in Swift's String(format:...), it can be substituted by a Swift String or any instance of a NSObject subclass. For example, if the Localizable.strings file contains the definition

"From %@, %@" = "从 %@, %@ 得出";

then

let x = 1.2
let y = 2.4
let text = String(format: NSLocalizedString("From %@, %@", comment: ""), "\(x)", "\(y)")
// Or alternatively:
let text = String(format: NSLocalizedString("From %@, %@", comment: ""), NSNumber(double: x), NSNumber(double: y))

produces "从 1.2, 2.4 得出". Another option would be to use the %f format for double floating point numbers:

"From %f, %f" = "从 %f, %f 得出";

with

let text = String(format: NSLocalizedString("From %f, %f", comment: ""), x, y)

See Niklas' answer for an even better solution which localizes the number representation as well.

edited Jan 20, 2018 at 8:12

answered Feb 10, 2016 at 14:00

Martin R

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7 Comments

Suragch Over a year ago

Is there a way to specify the order of the parameters or insert a single parameter multiple times? In some languages the insertion order might be reversed. Android allows this by using %1 and %2 before the format specifier.

Suragch Over a year ago

Is using %@ better than %s (for strings)?

Martin R Over a year ago

@Suragch: There are encoding problems with %s, see stackoverflow.com/a/23672885 for an example. – I think that positional parameters like %1$s work here as well.

Wil Shipley Over a year ago

This code won’t localize the numbers themselves — for example in German they use periods for commas and vice-versa, and in Arabic their digits are different codepoints. Use String.localizedStringWithFormat() or String(format: "%f", locale: Locale.current, number) instead.

Martin R Over a year ago

@WilShipley: You are completely right. Perhaps that method did not exist then or I did not think about it. I still think that I answered the question "I don't think you can use %@ to indicate that there is something to be placed there", but I have added a link to the better solution.

|

Michal · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-29 14:17:53Z

62

From WWDC 2017:

let format = NSLocalizedString("%d popular languages", comment:"Number of popular languages")
label.text = String.localizedStringWithFormat(format, popularLanguages.count)

edited Nov 29, 2017 at 14:17

Michal

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answered Nov 20, 2017 at 9:58

Niklas

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2 Comments

Wil Shipley Over a year ago

I believe this is the best answer because String.localizedStringWithFormat(_, ...) will localize the actual digits of the numbers (and swap commas and periods for German, for example), and String(format:...) will not. You can also use String(format: "%f", locale: Locale.current, number).

shakram02 Over a year ago

what if the variables to be substituted are in CVarArg?

Magnus · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-10 12:32:25Z

5

New in iOS 15 and macOS Monterey you can use the new refined method for String.

String(localized: "From \(x), \(y)", comment: "The result is computed from x and y")

They did a lot of updates in 2021 for localization with Xcode. Check this video from WWDC21 for more info.

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2021/10221/

edited Jun 10, 2022 at 12:32

Magnus

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answered Feb 17, 2022 at 15:21

TALE

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Comments

yoAlex5 · Accepted Answer · 2025-03-03 15:25:32Z

5

Swift localize a string

One more simple example

let changeable = "something"
let result = String(
    format: NSLocalizedString(
        "stringId",
        comment: ""
    ),
    arguments: [changeable]
) // Hello World and something

//or

let result = String.localizedStringWithFormat(NSLocalizedString("stringId", comment:""), changeable)

localizable.strings with

"stringId" = "Hello World and %@";

comment parameter doesn't have effect on result and is used for translators and by genstrings code-gen as comment

edited Mar 3 at 15:25

answered Aug 9, 2021 at 9:31

yoAlex5

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Comments

Naishta · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-05 08:34:33Z

-5

In objective C, if we want to get strings added at runtime as below

John Appleseed is the name

YourLocalizable.strings

"theStringToDisplay" = "%@ is the name";

ViewController.m

NSString *username = @"John Appleseed";
NSString *messageBeforeFormat = NSLocalizedStringFromTable(@"theStringToDisplay", @"YourLocalizable", nil);
NSString *messageAfterFormat = [NSString stringWithFormat:messageBeforeFormat, username ];

self.yourLabel.text = messageAfterFormat;

Further explanation in this nice post

https://www.oneskyapp.com/academy/learn-ios-localization/2-format-strings-plurals/

answered Jul 5, 2017 at 8:34

Naishta

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