JDK Locale class handling of ISO language codes for Hebrew (he), Yiddish (yi) and Indonesian (id)

Question

When instantiating a Locale object with either one of the following language codes: he, yi and id it doesn't preserve their value.

For example:

Locale locale = new Locale("he", "il");
locale.getLanguage(); // -> "iw"

What is causing this and is there any way to work around this?

Answer 1

The Java treatment of the Hebrew locale seems to had been changed in Java 17. It appears as an attempt to adhere to the ISO_639-1 language codes standard.

Unless property 'java.locale.useOldISOCodes' is set to true, Java now treats the Hebrew locale, by default as 'he' in adherence with ISO_639-1. This means you will succeed to load a Hebrew resource bundle named 'messages_he.properties' with either 'iw' or 'he' language code constructed locales. A 'messages_iw.properties' resource is de-prioritized and will only get loaded if a corresponding 'he' resource is none existent.

It's a step in the right direction and it's better late than never, as no more trickery and magic is required in the naming strategy of Hebrew resource bundles. Just use the 'he' ISO code.

I've recently answered this here at Locale code for Hebrew / Reference to other locale codes?. I've provided a small example class with basic resource bundles which demonstrates the new behavior.