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 @"en_US")

EDIT: For those driving on by, there are a ton of useful comments here, as the answer has evolved with new iOS releases.

Answer 1

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 2

Simple Swift 3 function:

  @discardableResult
  func getLanguageISO() -> String {
    let locale = Locale.current
    guard let languageCode = locale.languageCode,
          let regionCode = locale.regionCode else {
        return "de_DE"
    }
    return languageCode + "_" + regionCode
  }

Answer 3

Even there's a better way to get current device language. Let's try it by below code -

NSLog(@"Current Language - %@", [[NSLocale preferredLanguages] firstObject]);

Suggested by Abizern on here

Answer 4

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 5

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 6

Two letters format. Apple uses the ISO standard ISO-3166.

NSString *localeCountryCode = [[NSLocale autoupdatingCurrentLocale] objectForKey:NSLocaleCountryCode];