GLib.dgettext
Description: Reference for GLib.dgettext

### Function

# GLibdgettext

since: 2.18

#### Declaration

    const gchar*
    g_dgettext (
      const gchar* domain,
      const gchar* msgid
    )

#### Description

This function is a wrapper of `dgettext()` which does not translate the message if the default domain as set with `textdomain()` has no translations for the current locale.

The advantage of using this function over `dgettext()` proper is that libraries using this function (like GTK) will not use translations if the application using the library does not have translations for the current locale. This results in a consistent English-only interface instead of one having partial translations. For this feature to work, the call to `textdomain()` and `setlocale()` should precede any `g_dgettext()` invocations. For GTK, it means calling `textdomain()` before gtk_init or its variants.

This function disables translations if and only if upon its first call all the following conditions hold:

- `domain` is not `NULL`

- `textdomain()` has been called to set a default text domain

- there is no translations available for the default text domain and the current locale

- current locale is not “C” or any English locales (those starting with “en_”)

Note that this behavior may not be desired for example if an application has its untranslated messages in a language other than English. In those cases the application should call `textdomain()` after initializing GTK.

Applications should normally not use this function directly, but use the _() macro for translations.

Available since: 2.18

#### Parameters

`domain`

  Type: `const gchar*`

  The translation domain to use, or `NULL` to use the domain set with `textdomain()`

  The argument can be `NULL`.
  The data is owned by the caller of the function.
  The value is a NUL terminated UTF-8 string.

`msgid`

  Type: `const gchar*`

  Message to translate.

  The data is owned by the caller of the function.
  The value is a NUL terminated UTF-8 string.

#### Return value

Type: `const gchar*`

The translated string.

The data is owned by the called function.
The value is a NUL terminated UTF-8 string.