Question

I’m having some trouble debugging my NSLocalizedString implementation. Should be simple, but whatever I do, the function only returns the KEY string.

I’m using XCode 4.5 and iOS6, so I:

1. Added a new file called File.strings.
2. In my project settings I added English and Spanish as language settings.
3. Clicked “Make Localized” in the file inspector, and made sure that both English and Spanish options were selected, and also that the Target membership to my target was selected.
4. Added "KEY" = "TestEnglish"; to my english File.strings
5. Added "KEY" = "TestSpanish"; to my spanish File.strings
6. Added NSLog(@"Localization: %@\n", NSLocalizedString(@"KEY", nil)); to my .m file.

When I run the app, the value "KEY" is always displayed printed in the NSLog.

To jump into this a bit more, I tried this as well:

NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"en" ofType:@"lproj"];
NSString *str = [[NSBundle bundleWithPath:path] localizedStringForKey:@"KEY" value:@"" table:nil];
NSLog(@"Localization: %@\n", str); 

and still the value "KEY” is printed, yet, path is a valid path.

Does anyone have any clue how to debug this? I feel like I’ve read every SO question/answer out there, but none of the suggestions help.

I realize that NSLocalizedString returns the KEY string when it cannot match a key, but I don’t see how I can debug why my app might not be matching the KEY.

I’ve also deleted/cleaned the app about a dozen times.

Answer 1

If you specify table:nil, then NSBundle will try to fetch the localization from the default table (the one in SOMELANG.lproj/Localizable.strings). If you have the localization elsewhere, you should explicitly specify the table using table:@"File" (or use the NSLocalizedStringFromTable() macro in a similar manner:

NSString *value = NSLocalizedStringFromTable(@"key", @"File", nil);