Re: internationalizing text

On Fri, Mar 23, 2001 at 09:29:17AM -0000, Michael Ansley wrote:
> I think that the standard way to do this is to use a resource identifier,
> and then have a separate table with all strings. That's the way that most
> internationalisation is done in programs, and it's probably not bad for
> databases either.
>
> So maybe:
>
> create table something (
> id serial,
> yadayada int4,
> whatever date,
> mumble float8,
> ...
> id_resource int4 references something_text(id)
> );
> create table something_text (
> id int4,
> lang varchar(5), -- language code 'en-us','it','jp'...
> descr varchar(50)
> );

i was thinking that it was probably the normalization-friendly
version that would be most flexible.

but here's where i run into snags:

create table nation (
code char(2),
lang varchar(5),
descr varchar(50),
primary key (code)
);
insert into nation values ('us','en','United States');
insert into nation values ('us','fr','Etats Unis');

create table org (
...
postcode varchar(12),
nation char(2) references nation(code),
...
);

how do i get the proper "descr" field from table "nation" that's
in language "lang=xyz" using a view, when i don't know which
language will be used at 'compile time'? a straight select/view
will show ALL languages for EACH 'record' sought:

select o.*,n.descr
from nation n, org o
where o.nation = n.code
-- and n.lang = someUnknownQuantityToBeDeterminedLater
-- /* simple global variables would solve this, ahem... :) */
;

right now i've got all the data-driven stuff built into the
sql/plpgsql; the perl code does only the presenting of the
data... i'd like to keep the functions separated, but it doesn't
look possible here. ideas?

--
It is always hazardous to ask "Why?" in science, but it is often
interesting to do so just the same.
-- Isaac Asimov, 'The Genetic Code'

will(at)serensoft(dot)com
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