I don’t use this often, and only recently discovered this feature. Eclipse allows you to “externalize” all or specific strings in your project. This means that any string you’re using in your application can be stored in a properties file outside of your program. This essentially separates your text from the programming. Why would this be useful? Suppose you’re building an application that you want to translate into other languages. Rather than hard-code the text into your program, you can simply load up different property files depending on the language. See the potential? Now let’s see how it’s done.

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