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javapropertiesresourcebundle

Are keys unique in resource bundles?

What is the use of public final String[] getStringArray(String key) in ResourceBundle?
Aren't keys in properties files unique? Would this ever return more than one value? If not why does it return an array?

Solution

  • If you read carefully the documentation of ResourceBundle, its says that: -

    Resource bundles belong to families whose members share a common base name, but whose names also have additional components that identify their locales.

    Also: -

    Resource bundles contain key/value pairs. The keys uniquely identify a locale-specific object in the bundle.

    So, keys are only unique for a particular locale. In two different locale, you can have keys that are same. That is why the return type is String[].

    And for the method - getStringArray: -

    Gets a string array for the given key from this resource bundle or one of its parents.