Localize Your NSString

I probably won't use this code since I'm pretty sure it's a terrible idea. But since I put it together today, I'll share it. It's an NSString category that overwrite just the stringWithFormat: method, and just replaces the text with the text from your local language bundle.

I thought it would be useful for localizing an application, but it will probably result in madness and, eventually, blindness. It's a category "extension" for NSString.

#import "NSString+Localization.h"

@implementation NSString (Localization)

+ (NSString*)stringWithFormat:(NSString *)text, ...

{

    va_list args;

    va_start(args, text);

    text = NSLocalizedString(text, nil);

    NSString *retVal = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:text arguments:args];

    return retVal;

}

Perhaps more sane than overriding the stringWithFormat: method would be to create one. Any help on the name would be appreciated:

#import "NSString+Localization.h"

@implementation NSString (Localization)

+ (NSString*)twiceLocalizedStringWithFormat:(NSString *)text, ...

{

    va_list args;

    va_start(args, text);

    text = NSLocalizedString(text, nil);

    NSString *retVal = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:text locale: [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] dictionaryRepresentation] arguments:args];

    return retVal;

}


NOTE: This code is ARC friendly. If you are not ARCing, autorelease the retVal in both examples.