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")

Answer 1

This will probably give you what you want:

NSLocale *locale = [NSLocale currentLocale];

NSString *language = [locale displayNameForKey:NSLocaleIdentifier 
                                         value:[locale localeIdentifier]];

It will show the name of the language, in the language itself. For example:

Français (France)
English (United States)

Answer 2

You can use the displayNameForKey:value: method of NSLocale:

// get a French locale instance
NSLocale *frLocale = [[[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"fr_FR"] autorelease];

// use it to get translated display names of fr_FR and en_US
NSLog(@"%@", [frLocale displayNameForKey:NSLocaleIdentifier value:@"fr_FR"]);
NSLog(@"%@", [frLocale displayNameForKey:NSLocaleIdentifier value:@"en_US"]);

This will print out:

français (France)
anglais (États-Unis)

If you specify the same locale identifier for the initWithLocaleIdentifier: and also the displayNameForKey:value: method, then it will give you the native name of the language. I've discovered that if you remove the country code and use just fr and en, that it will also omit the country from the display name (on Mac OS X at least, not sure about iOS).