The i18n Cookbook - recipies for a global society

 Problem:

You want to spell out a dynamic numeric value being combined with a static resource.

Solution:

Java MessageFormat provides a number of options for formatting the values passed in.  ICU4J provides even more options.

One of the more interesting formatting options is the spellout format.  Spell out will actually write out a numeric value, such as thirty-five vs. 35.

ICU4J's MessageFormat is used similar to the code Java class.

To format a pattern using a spellout pattern:

Problem:

You want to combine dynamic values with your static resource files.

Solution:

There are many situations where part of a sentence comes from a dynamic source, or is provided by the user.  Obviously translatng a sentence for every possible scenario is not an option.  Thankfully Java provides a solution for this situation.  It is called MessageFormat.

A message format is a way of replacing variables in a sentence in a locale sensitive manner.

A simple message format: