Android: How to get string in specific locale WITHOUT changing the current locale

Question

Use Case: Logging error messages as displayed to the user.

However you don\'t want to have messages in your log that depend on the locale of the user\'s device. On t

Answer 1

You can use this for API +17

@NonNull
@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1)
public static String getStringByLocal(Activity context, int id, String locale) {
    Configuration configuration = new Configuration(context.getResources().getConfiguration());
    configuration.setLocale(new Locale(locale));
    return context.createConfigurationContext(configuration).getResources().getString(id);
}

Update (1) : How to support old versions.

@NonNull
public static String getStringByLocal(Activity context, int resId, String locale) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1)
        return getStringByLocalPlus17(context, resId, locale);
    else
        return getStringByLocalBefore17(context, resId, locale);
}

@NonNull
@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1)
private static String getStringByLocalPlus17(Activity context, int resId, String locale) {
    Configuration configuration = new Configuration(context.getResources().getConfiguration());
    configuration.setLocale(new Locale(locale));
    return context.createConfigurationContext(configuration).getResources().getString(resId);
}

private static String getStringByLocalBefore17(Context context,int resId, String language) {
    Resources currentResources = context.getResources();
    AssetManager assets = currentResources.getAssets();
    DisplayMetrics metrics = currentResources.getDisplayMetrics();
    Configuration config = new Configuration(currentResources.getConfiguration());
    Locale locale = new Locale(language);
    Locale.setDefault(locale);
    config.locale = locale;
/*
 * Note: This (temporarily) changes the devices locale! TODO find a
 * better way to get the string in the specific locale
 */
    Resources defaultLocaleResources = new Resources(assets, metrics, config);
    String string = defaultLocaleResources.getString(resId);
    // Restore device-specific locale
    new Resources(assets, metrics, currentResources.getConfiguration());
    return string;
}

Update (2): Check this article