How do I get Android to translate booleans?

Question

In Android Studio, I'm attempting to localize to Spanish, using xliff, a string that receives a boolean.

In English, my string resource looks like:

<string name="true_false_test">True/False?      <xliff:g example="true" id="true_false">%b</xliff:g></string>

In Spanish, like this:

<string name="true_false_test">Verdadero/Falso? <xliff:g id="true_false" example="true">%b</xliff:g></string>

When the app runs in English, this gives one of:

True/False? true
True/False? false

But in Spanish, the actual boolean doesn't seem to get translated:

Verdadero/Falso? true
Verdadero/Falso? false

How do I get Android to translate booleans?

instead of putting result directly after string, check it and use Resources.getString(..) method. — Engin OZTURK, Oct 16 '16 at 01:28
do not forget to add spanish and english key-values for both True and False — Engin OZTURK, Oct 16 '16 at 01:30
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of passing in a primitive to xliff? I mean, sure I could stringify and then create corresponding true/false translations, but shouldn't those base primitives already be auto-understood? — user2340426, Oct 16 '16 at 03:20

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 19 '18 at 08:47

I've met the same problem just now. Then I walked around and figured it out. Although this question was posted 2 years ago, I think my solution might be helpful.

We can create strings for true and false for different languages in resource files:

For English:

<string name="boolean_true">true</string>
<string name="boolean_false">false</string>

For Chinese:

<string name="boolean_true">是</string>
<string name="boolean_false">否</string>

Then we can translate boolean values into whatever languages we want:

boolean isActive = false;
String  strIsActive = isActive
                      ? getString(R.string.boolean_true)
                      : getString(R.string.boolean_false);

Balázs Lengyák · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-20T07:20:07.293

I found no "simple" solution, but could get around this task like this. Tested within Android Studio and on 6.0.1 Android.

First, in res/strings.xml: within 'resources' tag, specify your localized true / false values like this:

<string name="TRUE">Ja</string>
<string name="FALSE">Nein</string>

Define your string with xliff tag use %s (NOT %b!) like this:

<string name="does_mary_have_a_little_lamb">Does Mary have a little lamb? <xliff:g name="trueFalse" example="true">%s</xliff:g>

**The below example is within mainActivity.java class. Your application may differ. Please mind the namespace. **

In your java code create a function to convert boolean values to localized string representation:

/**
 * function to convert boolean values to localized true / false strings
 * @param b boolean to be translated
 * @return String containing localized true / false message
 */
private String translateBoolean(boolean b) {
    String trueFalse = Boolean.toString(b).toUpperCase(); // true / false is a reserved keyword, so convert to TRUE / FALSE
    String packageName = getPackageName();
    int resId = getResources().getIdentifier(trueFalse, "string", packageName);

    // this is to make sure that we got a valid resId else getString() will force close
    if (resId > 0) {
        return getString(resId);
    }
    else
    {
        return trueFalse; // provide a fallback 'true/false' if translation is not available
    }
}

Then use it in your string functions like this:

String output = getString(R.string.does_mary_have_a_little_lamb,translateBoolean(hasLittleLamb)) + "\n";

You could easily extend the above example to account for yes/no, up/down etc. translations. As this method is pretty expensive you could consider caching the results if you heavily use it.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 02 '18 at 04:54

im in the android class also.. i think the print formater for boolean is "%B" its with a capital "B" not a lower case "b". See u on slack..

<resources xmlns:xliff="urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:1.2">
    <string name="whip">whip?<xliff:g id="whip">%B</xliff:g></string>
</resources>

private String createOrderSummary(int price) {
    String mess = "Name: "+ getName() +"\n";
    mess += getString(R.string.add_whipped_cream, whip);///whip IS A BOOL VAL.
    return  mess;
}

How do I get Android to translate booleans?

3 Answers3