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I have noticed that an RC file can have duplicate resources (i.e. the same resource identifier), so long as they are in different language sections.

For example, this compiles without errors in my rc file:

#define IDS_STRING_001 10001

LANGUAGE LANG_ENGLISH, SUBLANG_DEFAULT
STRINGTABLE
BEGIN
    IDS_STRING_001 "English"
END

LANGUAGE LANG_JAPANESE, SUBLANG_DEFAULT
STRINGTABLE
BEGIN
    IDS_STRING_001 "Japanese"
END

Why is this possible? Is it intended to be used as an alternative way of localization, instead of using a separate DLL to hold the localized resources?

Luchian Grigore
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sashoalm
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  • Yes, because string resources are identified first by language, then by ID/name. That way, your code can load strings using the same ID/name regardless of which language resource has being loaded, so you don't have to write different code for each individual language. – Remy Lebeau Oct 17 '12 at 17:23

1 Answers1

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Yes, this is one way to do localization for you application. From this link:

The main idea behind this approach is to separate out the resources from the source code, creating a resource-only DLL containing all the localized resources for all targeted languages. Multiple copies of the same resource ID are defined in an RC file under different language tags. In the sample below, string ID IDS_ENUMSTRTEST is defined for French and English.

nickolayratchev
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  • MS doc says *"Language identifier constants are deprecated and their use is discouraged. Use of locale names instead of locale identifiers is always preferable"*. Is it applicable to RC files? – Sandburg Mar 01 '23 at 09:15