Getting current device language in iOS?

Question

I\'d like to show the current language that the device UI is using. What code would I use?

I want this as an NSString in fully spelled out format. (Not

Answer 1

If you want to get only language here is my suggested answer:

NSString *langplusreg = [[NSLocale preferredLanguages] objectAtIndex:0];
NSString * langonly = [[langplusreg componentsSeparatedByString:@"-"] 
objectAtIndex:0];

In my case i just wanted only Locale language not locale region.

Output: If your Locale language is Japanese and locale region is Japan then:

langplusreg = ja-JP

langonly = ja

Answer 2

As of iOS 9, if you just want the language code without country code, you'll want this sort of helper function - since the language will contain the country code.

// gets the language code without country code in uppercase format, i.e. EN or DE
NSString* GetLanguageCode()
{
    static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
    static NSString* lang;
    dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^
    {
        lang = [[[NSLocale preferredLanguages] objectAtIndex:0] uppercaseString];
        NSRegularExpression* regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:@"^[A-Za-z]+" options:0 error:nil];
        NSTextCheckingResult* match = [regex firstMatchInString:lang options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, lang.length)];
        if (match.range.location != NSNotFound)
        {
            lang = [lang substringToIndex:match.range.length];
        }
    });
    return lang;
}

Answer 3

i use this

    NSArray *arr = [NSLocale preferredLanguages];
for (NSString *lan in arr) {
    NSLog(@"%@: %@ %@",lan, [NSLocale canonicalLanguageIdentifierFromString:lan], [[[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:lan] displayNameForKey:NSLocaleIdentifier value:lan]);
}

ignore memory leak..

and result is

2013-03-02 20:01:57.457 xx[12334:907] zh-Hans: zh-Hans 中文（简体中文）
2013-03-02 20:01:57.460 xx[12334:907] en: en English
2013-03-02 20:01:57.462 xx[12334:907] ja: ja 日本語
2013-03-02 20:01:57.465 xx[12334:907] fr: fr français
2013-03-02 20:01:57.468 xx[12334:907] de: de Deutsch
2013-03-02 20:01:57.472 xx[12334:907] nl: nl Nederlands
2013-03-02 20:01:57.477 xx[12334:907] it: it italiano
2013-03-02 20:01:57.481 xx[12334:907] es: es español

Answer 4

Obviously, the solutions relying, for example, on

[[NSLocale preferredLanguages] objectAtIndex:0]

usually work fine and return the current device language.

But it could be misleading in some cases :

If the app in which you want to get this value has already changed the language, for example with this kind of code :

NSString *lg = @"en"; // or anything like @"en", @"fr", etc.
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] 
    setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:lg, nil]  
    forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]

In this case, [NSLocale preferredLanguages] actually returns the preferred language set (and used) in this particular app, not the current device language !

And... in this case the only way to properly get the actual current device language (and not that previously set in the app), is to firstly clear the key @"appleLanguages" in NSUserDefaults, like this :

[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults]removeObjectForKey:@"AppleLanguages"];

Then, [NSLocale preferredLanguages] now returns the correct value.

Hope this help.

Answer 5

If you're looking for preferred language code ("en", "de", "es" ...), and localized preferred language name (for current locale), here's a simple extension in Swift:

extension Locale {
static var preferredLanguageIdentifier: String {
    let id = Locale.preferredLanguages.first!
    let comps = Locale.components(fromIdentifier: id)
    return comps.values.first!
}

static var preferredLanguageLocalizedString: String {
    let id = Locale.preferredLanguages.first!
    return Locale.current.localizedString(forLanguageCode: id)!
}

}

Answer 6

The selected answer returns the current device language, but not the actual language used in the app. If you don't provide a localization in your app for the user's preferred language, the first localization available, ordered by the user's preferred order, is used.

To discover the current language selected within your localizations use

[[NSBundle mainBundle] preferredLocalizations];

Example:

NSString *language = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] preferredLocalizations] objectAtIndex:0];

Swift:

let language = NSBundle.mainBundle().preferredLocalizations.first as NSString