Multilingual C++ program

Question

How can I add multilanguage support to a C++ program? I want to let the user to choose between 2 languages when opening the app. What's the simplest way without any external libraries?

Answer 1

Replying to my comment, "You could make a dictionary where it's key is an enum representing a word, then the values could be an array of structures containing the language and actual string in that language. Example: (pseudo code) dictionary: - WORD1_ENUM => structure[LANGUAGE1_ENUM, WORD_IN_LANGUAGE1], structure[LANGUAGE2_ENUM, WORD_IN_LANGUAGE2]", you could make a dictionary that retrieves your world based on the selected language.

#include <initializer_list>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>


enum STRINGS
{
    HELLO_WORLD,
    GOODBYE_WORLD
};

#define SELECTED_LANGUAGE SLOVENIAN
#define NOT_FOUND_STR  "Not Found"
enum LANGUAGE
{
    ENGLISH,
    SLOVENIAN
};


struct DICTIONARY_VAL
{
    LANGUAGE lang;
    std::string text;
};

struct DICTIONARY_BLOCK_t{
    STRINGS key;
    std::vector<DICTIONARY_VAL> values;
};


class DICTIONARY_t
{
private:
    std::vector<DICTIONARY_BLOCK_t> data;
public:
    DICTIONARY_t (std::initializer_list<DICTIONARY_BLOCK_t> var)
    {
        for (DICTIONARY_BLOCK_t val : var)
        {
            data.push_back(val);
        }
    }

    std::string get_value(STRINGS key, LANGUAGE lang)
    {
        std::string l_ret = NOT_FOUND_STR;
        for (uint32_t i = 0; i < data.size() ; i++)
        {
            if (data[i].key == key)
            {
                for (uint32_t j = 0; j < data[i].values.size(); j++)
                {
                    if (data[i].values[j].lang == lang)
                    {
                        l_ret = data[i].values[j].text;
                        break;
                    }
                }
                break;
            }
        }
        return l_ret;
    }

};

DICTIONARY_t dict = 
{
    {HELLO_WORLD,   { {ENGLISH, "Hello World"},   {SLOVENIAN, "Zivjo svet"     }  }},
    {GOODBYE_WORLD, { {ENGLISH, "Goodbye World"}, {SLOVENIAN, "Nasvidenje svet"}  }}
};



int main()
{
    LANGUAGE selected_language;
    std::cout << "Select your lanugage\n0.) ENGLISH\n1.) Slovenian" << std::endl;
    int tmp;
    std::cin >> tmp;
    selected_language = (LANGUAGE) tmp;

    
    std::cout << dict.get_value(HELLO_WORLD, selected_language) << std::endl;


    return 0;
}