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Locale-specific data must be tailored according to the conventions of the end-user's language and region. The text displayed by a user interface is the most obvious example of locale-specific data. For example, an application with a "Cancel" button in the U.S. will have an "Abbrechen" button in Germany. In other countries this button will have other labels. Obviously, you don't want to hardcode this button label. Wouldn't it be nice if you could automatically get the correct label for a givenLocale
? Fortunately, you can, provided that you isolate the locale-specific objects in aResourceBundle
.In this lesson, you'll learn how to create, load, and access
ResourceBundle
objects. If you're in a hurry to examine some coding examples, go ahead and check out the last two sections in this lesson. Then, you can come back to the first two sections to get some conceptual information aboutResourceBundle
objects.About the ResourceBundle Class
ResourceBundle
objects contain locale-specific objects. When you need a locale-specific object, you fetch it from aResourceBundle
, which returns the object that matches the end-user'sLocale
. In this section, we'll explain how aResourceBundle
is related to aLocale
. We'll also describe theResourceBundle
subclasses, and when you should use them.Preparing to Use a ResourceBundle
Before you create and load yourResourceBundle
objects, you should do a little planning. First, identify the locale-specific objects in your program. Then, organize these locale-specific objects into categories and store them in differentResourceBundle
objects accordingly.Backing a ResourceBundle with Properties Files
If your application containsString
objects that need to be translated into different languages, you should store theseString
objects in aPropertyResourceBundle
, which is backed up by a set of properties files. Since the properties files are simple text files, they can be created and maintained by your translators. You don't have to change the source code. In this section, you'll learn how to set up the properties files that back up aPropertyResourceBundle
.Using a ListResourceBundle
TheListResourceBundle
class, which is a subclass ofResourceBundle
, manages locale-specific objects with a list. AListResourceBundle
is backed by a class file, which means you must code and compile an new source file each time support for an additionalLocale
is needed. Therefore, you should not use aListResourceBundle
to isolateString
objects that must be translated into other languages. Instead, you use aPropertyResourceBundle
because it is backed up by a set of editable properties files. However,ListResourceBundle
objects are useful, because unlike properties files, they can store any type of locale-specific object. By stepping through an example program, this section demonstrates how to use aListResourceBundle
.
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