user_guide/libraries/language.html

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<h1>Language Class</h1>

<p>The Language Class provides functions to retrieve language files and lines of text for purposes of internationalization.</p>

<p>In your CodeIgniter system folder you'll find one called <dfn>language</dfn> containing sets of language files.  You can create
your own language files as needed in order to display error and other messages in other languages.</p>

<p>Language files are typically stored in your <dfn>system/language</dfn> directory.  Alternately you can create a folder called <kbd>language</kbd> inside
your <kbd>application</kbd> folder and store them there.  CodeIgniter will look first in your <dfn>application/language</dfn>
directory.  If the directory does not exist or the specified language is not located there CI will instead look in your global
<dfn>system/language</dfn> folder.</p>

<p class="important"><strong>Note:</strong>&nbsp; Each language should be stored in its own folder.  For example, the English files are located at:
<dfn>system/language/english</dfn></p>


<h2>Creating Language Files</h2>

<p>Language files must be named with <kbd>_lang.php</kbd> as the file extension.  For example, let's say you want to create a file
containing error messages.  You might name it:  <kbd>error_lang.php</kbd></p>

<p>Within the file you will assign each line of text to an array called <var>$lang</var> with this prototype:</p>

<code>$lang['language_key'] = "The actual message to be shown";</code>

<p><strong>Note:</strong> It's a good practice to use a common prefix for all messages in a given file to avoid collisions with
similarly named items in other files.  For example, if you are creating error messages you might prefix them with <var>error_</var></p>

<code>$lang['<var>error</var>_email_missing'] = "You must submit an email address";<br />
$lang['<var>error</var>_url_missing'] = "You must submit a URL";<br />
$lang['<var>error</var>_username_missing'] = "You must submit a username";</code>


<h2>Loading A Language File</h2>

<p>In order to fetch a line from a particular file you must load the file first.  Loading a language file is done with the following code:</p>

<code>$this->lang->load('<samp>filename</samp>', '<dfn>language</dfn>');</code>

<p>Where <samp>filename</samp> is the name of the file you wish to load (without the file extension), and <dfn>language</dfn>
is the language set containing it (ie, english).  If the second parameter is missing, the default language set in your
<kbd>application/config/config.php</kbd> file will be used.</p>


<h2>Fetching a Line of Text</h2>

<p>Once your desired language file is loaded you can access any line of text using this function:</p>

<code>$this->lang->line('<samp>language_key</samp>');</code>

<p>Where <samp>language_key</samp> is the array key corresponding to the line you wish to show.</p>

<p>Note: This function simply returns the line.  It does not echo it for you.</p>

<h3>Using language lines as form labels</h3>

<p class="important">This feature has been deprecated from the language library and moved to the <kbd>lang()</kbd> function of the <a href="../helpers/language_helper.html">Language helper</a>.</p>

<h2>Auto-loading Languages</h2>
<p>If you find that you need a particular language globally throughout your application, you can tell CodeIgniter to <a href="../general/autoloader.html">auto-load</a> it during system initialization. This is done by opening the application/config/autoload.php file and adding the language(s) to the autoload array.</p>
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