ICU and Internationalization Libraries

What is International Components for Unicode (ICU)

According to Unicode, ICU is a set of programming libraries providing Unicode and Globalization support for software applications. It is widely portable and gives applications the same results on all platforms. It can provide services including Code Page Conversion, Collation, Formatting, Time Calculations, Unicode Support, Regular Expression, Bidi, and Text Boundaries. Details can be found in ICU User Guide.

Under ICU, we have ICU4C, (ICU library for C language) and ICU4J (ICU library for Java)

What is Internationalizaiton (i18n) libraries

Internationalizaiton libraries are toolkit that help developers prepare softwars for use in multiple languages and regions without making too much changes to the existing codebase. i18n libries usually able to handle taks like ICU, such as text direction, time/date/currency formatting, text layouts, plaural forms and etc.

Here are some common i18n libraries for different programming languages:

Java: ICU4J

JavaScript: i18next, react-intl, react-i18next, Globalize, Polyglot, Angular I18n

C: ICU4C

Python: Babel, Django18n

Mobile app:

Builde in feature in IDEs:

X-Code

Android Studio

Third party libraries:

React-native-localize

Flutter Intl

What to Consider When Selecting i18n Libriary?

Language and framework compatibility

Does the i18n libriary supports the languages the products' current and furture need?

Does the i18n libiriary supports the platform the product is working on?

Features and Capabilities

Does the libriary supports all the functions the product needed, such as text layouts, date formatting, or bi-directional language?

Ease of use

Can the libriary be easily understand and incorporated?

Local Data and CLDR Complaince

Is the libriary using CLDR repository or their own repository for local data?