- Introduction
- Language Files
- Basic Usage
- Pluralization
- Validation Localization
- Overriding Package Language Files
The Laravel Lang
class provides a convenient way of retrieving strings in various languages, allowing you to easily support multiple languages within your application.
Language strings are stored in files within the app/lang
directory. Within this directory there should be a subdirectory for each language supported by the application.
/app
/lang
/en
messages.php
/es
messages.php
Language files simply return an array of keyed strings. For example:
<?php
return array(
'welcome' => 'Welcome to our application'
);
The default language for your application is stored in the app/config/app.php
configuration file. You may change the active language at any time using the App::setLocale
method:
App::setLocale('es');
echo Lang::get('messages.welcome');
The first segment of the string passed to the get
method is the name of the language file, and the second is the name of the line that should be retrieved.
Note: If a language line does not exist, the key will be returned by the
get
method.
You may also use the trans
helper function, which is an alias for the Lang::get
method.
echo trans('messages.welcome');
You may also define place-holders in your language lines:
'welcome' => 'Welcome, :name',
Then, pass a second argument of replacements to the Lang::get
method:
echo Lang::get('messages.welcome', array('name' => 'Dayle'));
if (Lang::has('messages.welcome'))
{
//
}
Pluralization is a complex problem, as different languages have a variety of complex rules for pluralization. You may easily manage this in your language files. By using a "pipe" character, you may separate the singular and plural forms of a string:
'apples' => 'There is one apple|There are many apples',
You may then use the Lang::choice
method to retrieve the line:
echo Lang::choice('messages.apples', 10);
Since the Laravel translator is powered by the Symfony Translation component, you may also create more explicit pluralization rules easily:
'apples' => '{0} There are none|[1,19] There are some|[20,Inf] There are many',
For localization for validation errors and messages, take a look at the documentation on Validation.
Many packages ship with their own language lines. Instead of hacking the package's core files to tweak these lines, you may override them by placing files in the app/lang/packages/{locale}/{package}
directory. So, for example, if you need to override the English language lines in messages.php
for a package named skyrim/hearthfire
, you would place a language file at: app/lang/packages/en/hearthfire/messages.php
. In this file you would define only the language lines you wish to override. Any language lines you don't override will still be loaded from the package's language files.