Combined Strings

Combined Strings is a feature that breaks a string to parts. This means that a single text will be split into several parts. Combine string rule decides how the breaking is done. Sisulizer uses regular expressions to describe breaking rules. After converting a plain string into a combined string, Sisulizer project will have several rows instead of one single row.

Let's have an example. Before taking combined string in used our project contains the following row:

One;Two;Three

As you can see the string contains three sub strings separated by semi colon. If we set the row using combined string and #;#;# regular expression Sisulizer will replace the original row with three different rows.

One
Two
Three

Each row is a separate translation entity and it is translated independently. The advantage of combined string is that in most cases the string format must be exactly right. For example if must contain the specific separator characters. If the string is shows on the translation sheet as it is, it is possible that translator will enter string in invalid format. To prevent that you can split combined strings into plain part using expressions.

Examples

Let's have few combined string expression examples:

Sources

Combines strings can be used in the following source types:

How to use

There are several ways to turn combined string parsing on.

Row by Row

You select what rows contain combined string. Right click on the left side of a row in the translation sheet and choose Set Format | Combined and enter the regular expression in a dialog that appears.

By data definition

You select a part of data structure that always contains combined strings. If you localize an XML file you can select what XML elements contain combined data. If you localize a database you can select what database fields contain combined data.

Tagging

You select that strings contains combined string as you write you resources or source code. Add tags into your source code or resource file to make Sisulizer automatically apply regular expressions.