Documentation Contents

Supported Locales

The set of supported locales varies between different implementations of the Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) as well as between different areas of functionality.

This page documents locale support in Sun's Java SE Development Kit 6 (JDK) and Java SE Runtime Environment 6 (JRE) in the following areas:

  1. Enabled Locales for java.util and java.text Functionality
  2. Enabled Writing Systems for Java Foundation Classes
    1. Overview
    2. Text Input
    3. Text Rendering
    4. Drag and Drop
  3. User Interface Translation

Sun's Java SE Runtime Environment 6 for Windows may be installed as a complete international version or as a European languages version. The JRE installer by default installs a European languages version if it recognizes that the host operating system only supports European languages. If the installer recognizes that any other language is needed, or if the user requests support for non-European languages in a customized installation, a complete international version is installed. The JRE for Solaris and Linux and the JDK for any platform are always installed as complete international versions.


1. Enabled Locales for java.util and java.text Functionality

The support for locale-sensitive behavior in the java.util and java.text packages is almost entirely platform independent, so all locales are supported in the same way and simultaneously, independent of the host operating system and its localization. The only platform dependent functionality is the setting of the initial default locale and the initial default time zone based on the host operating system's locale and time zone.

Sun's Java SE Development Kit 6 and the international versions of the Java SE Runtime Environment 6 support all locales shown below. The European languages version of the Java SE Runtime Environment 6 supports all locales for the following languages: Albanian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Cyrillic), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian.

Supported Locales

Language

Country

Locale ID

Albanian

Albania

sq_AL

Arabic

Algeria

ar_DZ

Arabic

Bahrain

ar_BH

Arabic

Egypt

ar_EG

Arabic

Iraq

ar_IQ

Arabic

Jordan

ar_JO

Arabic

Kuwait

ar_KW

Arabic

Lebanon

ar_LB

Arabic

Libya

ar_LY

Arabic

Morocco

ar_MA

Arabic

Oman

ar_OM

Arabic

Qatar

ar_QA

Arabic

Saudi Arabia

ar_SA

Arabic

Sudan

ar_SD

Arabic

Syria

ar_SY

Arabic

Tunisia

ar_TN

Arabic

United Arab Emirates

ar_AE

Arabic

Yemen

ar_YE

Belarusian

Belarus

be_BY

Bulgarian

Bulgaria

bg_BG

Catalan

Spain

ca_ES

Chinese (Simplified)

China

zh_CN

Chinese (Simplified)

Singapore

zh_SG(*)

Chinese (Traditional)

Hong Kong

zh_HK

Chinese (Traditional)

Taiwan

zh_TW

Croatian

Croatia

hr_HR

Czech

Czech Republic

cs_CZ

Danish

Denmark

da_DK

Dutch

Belgium

nl_BE

Dutch

Netherlands

nl_NL

English

Australia

en_AU

English

Canada

en_CA

English

India

en_IN

English

Ireland

en_IE

English

Malta

en_MT(*)

English

New Zealand

en_NZ

English

Philippines

en_PH(*)

English

Singapore

en_SG(*)

English

South Africa

en_ZA

English

United Kingdom

en_GB

English

United States

en_US

Estonian

Estonia

et_EE

Finnish

Finland

fi_FI

French

Belgium

fr_BE

French

Canada

fr_CA

French

France

fr_FR

French

Luxembourg

fr_LU

French

Switzerland

fr_CH

German

Austria

de_AT

German

Germany

de_DE

German

Luxembourg

de_LU

German

Switzerland

de_CH

Greek

Cyprus

el_CY(*)

Greek

Greece

el_GR

Hebrew

Israel

iw_IL

Hindi

India

hi_IN

Hungarian

Hungary

hu_HU

Icelandic

Iceland

is_IS

Indonesian

Indonesia

in_ID(*)

Irish

Ireland

ga_IE(*)

Italian

Italy

it_IT

Italian

Switzerland

it_CH

Japanese (Gregorian calendar)

Japan

ja_JP

Japanese (Imperial calendar)

Japan

ja_JP_JP

Korean

South Korea

ko_KR

Latvian

Latvia

lv_LV

Lithuanian

Lithuania

lt_LT

Macedonian

Macedonia

mk_MK

Malay

Malaysia

ms_MY(*)

Maltese

Malta

mt_MT(*)

Norwegian (Bokmål)

Norway

no_NO

Norwegian (Nynorsk)

Norway

no_NO_NY

Polish

Poland

pl_PL

Portuguese

Brazil

pt_BR(*)

Portuguese

Portugal

pt_PT(*)

Romanian

Romania

ro_RO

Russian

Russia

ru_RU

Serbian (Cyrillic)

Bosnia and Herzegovina

sr_BA(*)

Serbian (Cyrillic)

Serbia and Montenegro

sr_CS(*)

Slovak

Slovakia

sk_SK

Slovenian

Slovenia

sl_SI

Spanish

Argentina

es_AR

Spanish

Bolivia

es_BO

Spanish

Chile

es_CL

Spanish

Colombia

es_CO

Spanish

Costa Rica

es_CR

Spanish

Dominican Republic

es_DO

Spanish

Ecuador

es_EC

Spanish

El Salvador

es_SV

Spanish

Guatemala

es_GT

Spanish

Honduras

es_HN

Spanish

Mexico

es_MX

Spanish

Nicaragua

es_NI

Spanish

Panama

es_PA

Spanish

Paraguay

es_PY

Spanish

Peru

es_PE

Spanish

Puerto Rico

es_PR

Spanish

Spain

es_ES

Spanish

United States

es_US(*)

Spanish

Uruguay

es_UY

Spanish

Venezuela

es_VE

Swedish

Sweden

sv_SE

Thai (Western digits)

Thailand

th_TH

Thai (Thai digits)

Thailand

th_TH_TH

Turkish

Turkey

tr_TR

Ukrainian

Ukraine

uk_UA

Vietnamese

Vietnam

vi_VN

(*) Data for these locales are derived from the Unicode Consortium's Common Locale Data Repository release 1.4 on an "AS-IS" basis.


2. Enabled Writing Systems for Java Foundation Classes

2.1 Overview

For the Java Foundation Classes (AWT, Swing, 2D, input method framework, drag and drop), locales can generally be characterized by just the writing system; there are no country or language specific distinctions. Writing system support in the JFC depends to some extent on the host operating system, and full support for simultaneous use of multiple languages is not always possible.

We consider a writing system supported by JFC if all functionality provided by JFC works adequately for this writing system in the following situations:

Sun's Java SE Development Kit 6 and the international version of the Java SE Runtime Environment 6 support all writing systems shown below. The European languages version of the Java SE Runtime Environment 6 supports only the Cyrillic, Greek, and Latin writing systems. Peered AWT components are only supported for a subset of the writing systems - see the last column.

Details on various areas of functionality are provided in the sections below.

Supported Writing Systems

Writing System

Languages

Windows Encodings

Solaris Encodings

Linux Encodings

Peered AWT Components

Arabic

Arabic

1256

8859-6,
UTF-8

UTF-8(4)

unsupported

Chinese (Simplified)

Chinese

936,
GB18030

gb2312,
UTF-8,
GBK,
gb18030

GB2312(2),
GB18030(3)(5),
UTF-8(4)(5)(7)

supported

Chinese (Traditional)

Chinese

950,
HKSCS

cns11643,
UTF-8,
BIG5,
BIG5HK

Big5(2)(3),
UTF-8(4)(5)

supported

Cyrillic

Belarusian, Russian etc.

1251

8859-5,
KOI8-R,
ANSI1251,
UTF-8

unsupported

supported

Devanagari

Hindi

UTF-8

UTF-8

unsupported

unsupported

Greek

Greek

1253

8859-7

unsupported

supported

Hebrew

Hebrew

1255

8859-8

UTF-8(4)

unsupported

Japanese

Japanese

932

eucJP(1),
UTF-8,
PCK

eucJP(1)(2)(3),
UTF-8(4)(5)(7)

supported

Korean

Korean

949

5601,
UTF-8

EUC-KR(2)(3),
UTF-8(4)(5)

supported

Latin - Baltic subset

Latvian, Lithuanian

1257

8859-13

unsupported

supported

Latin - Central European subset

Czech, Hungarian, Polish, etc.

1250

8859-2,
UTF-8

unsupported

supported

Latin - Maltese subset

Maltese

UTF-8

UTF-8

unsupported

supported

Latin - Turkic subset

Turkish etc.

1254

8859-9,
UTF-8

unsupported

supported

Latin - Western European subset

English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, etc.

1252

8859-1,
8859-15,
UTF-8

ISO-8859-1(2),
UTF-8(3)(4)(5)(6),

supported

Thai

Thai

874

TIS620.2533,
UTF-8

unsupported

unsupported

(1) eucJP on Solaris supports the JIS character sets X 0201, X 0208, and X 0212; eucJP on Linux only X 0201 and X 0208.
(2) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 2.1.
(3) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 AS, ES, and WS.
(4) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 AS, ES, and WS.
(5) on Sun Java Desktop System Release 3.
(6) on SuSE Linux 10 and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9.
(7) on Turbolinux 10 Desktop.

2.2 Text Input

Support for text input consists of two parts: interpretation of keyboard layouts, and text composition using input methods. For interpretation of keyboard layouts, the Java SE relies entirely on the host operating system. For text composition using input methods, Java SE supports native input methods using the host operating system's input method manager as well as input methods developed in the Java programming language.

Locale support in input methods implemented in the Java programming language depends solely on the set of installed input methods, not on the host operating system and its localization. However, support for the use of input methods implemented in the Java programming language with peered components is implementation dependent - see below.

Support for keyboard layouts and and native input methods varies between platforms.

Windows

On Windows 98, the JRE supports use of any keyboard layout or IMM-based input method that can be installed into a particular localized version of the host operating system.

On Windows 2000, XP, and 2003, the JRE supports use of any keyboard layout or IMM-based input method.

Global IME is not supported.

Input methods implemented in the Java programming language are supported in all components on all versions of Windows.

Solaris and Linux

The JRE supports use of any keyboard layout or input method that can be used with a particular Solaris or Linux locale.

Input methods implemented in the Java programming language are supported in lightweight components (such as Swing text components), but not in peered components (such as AWT text components).

2.3 Text Rendering

Applications have two options for selecting fonts:

Text Rendering in Lightweight Components

When using logical font names, text in at least the writing system of the host locale and the Western European subset of the Latin writing system is supported.

When using physical fonts, we need to distinguish between simple and complex writing systems. Simple writing systems have a one-to-one mapping from characters to glyphs, and glyphs are placed on the baseline continuously from left to right. Complex writing systems may use different glyphs for the same character based on context, may form ligatures, may be written from right to left, and may reorder glyphs during line layout, or may have other rules for placing glyphs (in particular for combining marks).

The 2D text rendering system supports any combination of simple writing systems and the complex writing systems listed in the table above. Within these limitations, the range of supported writing systems is determined by the font. A single TrueType font might provide glyphs covering the entire Unicode character set and a Unicode based character-to-glyph mapping. Given such a font, 2D can support all simple writing systems as well as the complex writing systems shown in the table above. Other complex writing systems are not supported.

Text Rendering in Peered Components

When using logical font names, text in at least the writing system of the host operating system's locale is supported.

Physical fonts are not supported in peered components.

Text Rendering in Printing

There are three printing APIs:

Text rendering using the AWT and 2D printing API works to the same extent as text rendering on the screen. Text rendering using the pluggable services printing API depends on the printing service used; the services provided by the JRE work to the same extent as text rendering on the screen.

2.4 Drag and Drop

On Windows 98, text in the writing system of the host operating system's localization can be transferred between applications.

On Windows 2000, XP, and 2003, text using the entire Unicode character set can be transferred between applications.

On Solaris and Linux, text in the character encoding of the host operating system's locale can be transferred between applications.

Applications that need to transfer arbitrary text independent of the host operating system, can do so using serialization: Create a Transferable which supports only one flavor: DataFlavor.stringFlavor. This flavor represents the serialized representation of a String. Make sure that the target supports stringFlavor as well. When the transfer occurs, the AWT will serialize out the String on one end and deserialize on the other. This is much slower than a native platform text transfer, but it will succeed where native transfers may not.


3. User Interface Translation

Java SE Runtime Environment

The user interface elements provided by the Java SE Runtime Environment 6, include Swing dialogs, messages written by the runtime environment to the standard output and standard error streams, as well as messages produced by the tools provided with the JRE. These user interface elements are localized into the following languages:

Language

Locale ID

Chinese (Simplified)

zh_CN

Chinese (Traditional)

zh_TW

English

en

French

fr

German

de

Italian

it

Japanese

ja

Korean

ko

Spanish

es

Swedish

sv

Java SE Development Kit

The user interface elements provided by the Java SE Development Kit 6, include messages produced by the tools that are only part of the JDK in addition to the elements provided by the JRE. The additional user interface elements are localized into the following languages:

Language

Locale ID

Chinese (Simplified)

zh_CN

English

en

Japanese

ja


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