# What is a localization string table?

A localization string table stores every text of a game or app under a key, with one column per language.

Updated on 22 October 2026.

## How it works

The code asks for a key such as menu.start, and the table answers with the text in the player’s language. Engines read tables as files: Unity’s Localization package has string tables, Godot reads CSV, and gettext .po and XLIFF are common exchange formats.

Each row usually carries context for the translator, a maximum length, placeholders that must survive translation, and the state of each translation.

## An example

The key quest.lighthouse.title reads The Drowned Light in English. The German translation is too long for its 24-character slot, so the table flags it before a build, and the translator gets the context note.

## Common mistakes

- Putting text straight in the code, so nothing can be translated without a build.
- No context, so translators guess what a word means.
- Breaking placeholders such as %s or %d in translation.

## In Nodary

A Nodary sheet can be a string table: a state per translation, length and placeholder checks, a pseudo-language for testing, and exports for Unity, Unreal and Godot as CSV, JSON, gettext .po and XLIFF. A build can read it over HTTP with a read-only key.

**What Nodary does not do:** it is not a translation management system: there is no translation memory and no marketplace of translators.

- [Game localization tool](https://nodary.ai/game-localization)
- [Localization string table template](https://nodary.ai/templates/localization-string-table)

Try it on your own documents. The Free plan needs no card. [Create a free workspace](https://nodary.ai/sign-up)

## Sources

- [String Tables, Unity Localization package manual](https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.localization@1.5/manual/StringTables.html)
- [Internationalizing games, Godot documentation](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/i18n/internationalizing_games.html)
- [GNU gettext manual, GNU](https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html)
- [XLIFF 2.1, OASIS](https://docs.oasis-open.org/xliff/xliff-core/v2.1/xliff-core-v2.1.html)

## Related terms

- [Game design document (GDD)](https://nodary.ai/glossary/game-design-document): A game design document (GDD) describes a game’s vision, rules, systems and content for the team that builds it.
- [Single source of truth: keep one version of every decision](https://nodary.ai/guides/single-source-of-truth): Why documents drift, and seven practices that keep one current version for people and AI agents.
- [Knowledge base](https://nodary.ai/glossary/knowledge-base): A knowledge base is an organised, searchable collection of what a team knows, so people and AI agents find answers without asking.

https://nodary.ai/glossary/localization-string-table