Overview

Internationalization

Internationalization or I18N refers to the capability of an Application to be able to serve users in multiple and different languages. Java has in-built support for Internationalization. Java also provides formatting of numbers, currencies and adjustment of date and time accordingly.

Java Internationalization helps to make a java application handle different languages, number formats, currencies, region specific time formatting.

Localization

Localization or L10N is the adaptability of an application that is how an application adapts itself with a specific language, number formats, date and time settings etc.

A java application should be internationalized in order to be able to localize itself.

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Culturally Dependent Information

Following information items often varies with different time zones or cultures.

• Messages
• Date
• Time
• Number
• Currency
• Measurements
• Phone Numbers
• Postal Addresses
• GUI labels

Internationalization Classes

Java has a set of built-in classes which help in internationalization of an application. These classes are following −

Sr.No.	Class & Description
1	LocaleRepresents a language along with country/region.
2	ResourceBundleContains localized text or objects.
3	NumberFormatUse to format numbers/currencies as per the locale.
4	DecimalFormatUse to format numbers as per customized format and as per locale.
5	DateFormatUse to format dates as per locale.
6	SimpleDateFormatUse to format dates as per customized format and as per locale.