Source: Roblox Creator Hub · CC BY 4.0 · View source · Code samples: MIT Imported 2026-10-03. Formatting adapted for this site.
Translator
Inherits from: Instance → Object
The role of a Translator is to manufacture/return strings localized for the viewing player. It can be used to retrieve display-ready localized text from a LocalizationTable. The source of the Translator.LocaleId property, the set of tables it will search, and the order it will search them in depends on which method was used to create the Translator instance.
The input for a Translator is the original development language string and a context, where all or part of the context can be used to find a more precise/situational translation for the source string.
The Translator can also be used to manufacture translated strings with inserts (data replacements) which may change order based on the target language.
Inherits from: Instance
Memory category: Instances
Tags: NotCreatable, NotReplicated
Properties
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Translator.LocaleId | string | The locale of translated strings. |
Inherited from Instance
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Instance.Archivable | boolean | Determines if an Instance and its descendants can be cloned using Instance:Clone(), and can be saved/published. |
| Instance.archivable | boolean | |
| Instance.Capabilities | SecurityCapabilities | The set of capabilities allowed to be used for scripts inside this container. |
| Instance.IsInSandbox | boolean | Indicates whether the instance is inside a sandboxed container. |
| Instance.Name | string | A non-unique identifier of the Instance. |
| Instance.Parent | Instance | Determines the hierarchical parent of the Instance. |
| Instance.PredictionMode | PredictionMode | Reflects the client-side prediction mode applied to the instance under server-authoritative physics. |
| Instance.RobloxLocked | boolean | A deprecated property that used to protect CoreGui objects. |
| Instance.Sandboxed | boolean | When enabled, the instance can only access abilities in its Capabilities list. |
| Instance.UniqueId | UniqueId | A unique identifier for the instance. |
Inherited from Object
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Object.ClassName | string | A read-only string representing the class this Object belongs to. |
| Object.className | string |
Translator.LocaleId
The Roblox locale of the output translated strings from this table, for example "en-us" or "es-es." Defaults to "en-us".
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| type | string |
| tags | ["ReadOnly","NotReplicated"] |
| security | {"read":"None","write":"None"} |
| thread safety | ReadSafe |
| category | Behavior |
| serialization | {"can_load":false,"can_save":true} |
| capabilities | ["Basic"] |
Methods
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Translator:FormatByKey | string | Returns the localized text string in a LocalizationTable based on its Translator locale, by key. |
| Translator:Translate | string | Returns the localized text string in a LocalizationTable based on its Translator locale, by source lookup. |
Inherited from Instance
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Instance:AddTag | () | Applies a tag to the instance. |
| Instance:children | Instances | Returns an array of the object's children. |
| Instance:ClearAllChildren | () | This method destroys all of an instance's children. |
| Instance:Clone | Instance | Create a copy of an instance and all its descendants, ignoring instances that are not Archivable. |
| Instance:clone | Instance | |
| Instance:Destroy | () | Sets the Instance.Parent property to nil, locks the Instance.Parent property, disconnects all connections, and calls Destroy() on all children. |
| Instance:destroy | () | |
| Instance:FindFirstAncestor | Instance? | Returns the first ancestor of the Instance whose Instance.Name is equal to the given name. |
| Instance:FindFirstAncestorOfClass | Instance? | Returns the first ancestor of the Instance whose Object.ClassName is equal to the given className. |
| Instance:FindFirstAncestorWhichIsA | Instance? | Returns the first ancestor of the Instance for whom Object:IsA() returns true for the given className. |
| Instance:FindFirstChild | Instance? | Returns the first child of the Instance found with the given name. |
| Instance:findFirstChild | Instance | |
| Instance:FindFirstChildOfClass | Instance? | Returns the first child of the Instance whose ClassName is equal to the given class name. |
| Instance:FindFirstChildWhichIsA | Instance? | Returns the first child of the Instance for whom Object:IsA() returns true for the given className. |
| Instance:FindFirstDescendant | Instance? | Returns the first descendant found with the given Instance.Name. |
| Instance:GetActor | Actor? | Returns the Actor associated with the Instance, if any. |
| Instance:GetAttribute | Variant | Returns the value which has been assigned to the given attribute name. |
| Instance:GetAttributeChangedSignal | RBXScriptSignal | Returns an event that fires when the given attribute changes. |
| Instance:GetAttributes | Dictionary | Returns a dictionary of the instance's attributes. |
| Instance:GetChildren | Instances | Returns an array containing all of the instance's children. |
| Instance:getChildren | Instances | |
| Instance:GetDebugId | string | Returns a coded string of the debug ID used internally by Roblox. |
| Instance:GetDescendants | Instances | Returns an array containing all of the descendants of the instance. |
| Instance:GetFullName | string | Returns a string describing the instance's ancestry. |
| Instance:GetStyled | Variant | Returns the styled or explicitly modified value of the specified property, or else the default property value if it hasn't been styled/modified. |
| Instance:GetStyledPropertyChangedSignal | RBXScriptSignal | Returns an event that fires when the given style property changes on the instance. |
| Instance:GetTags | Array | Gets an array of all tags applied to the instance. |
| Instance:HasTag | boolean | Check whether the instance has a given tag. |
| Instance:IsAncestorOf | boolean | Returns true if an Instance is an ancestor of the given descendant. |
| Instance:IsDescendantOf | boolean | Returns true if an Instance is a descendant of the given ancestor. |
| Instance:isDescendantOf | boolean | |
| Instance:IsPropertyModified | boolean | Returns true if the value stored in the specified property is not equal to the code-instantiated default. |
| Instance:QueryDescendants | Instances | Returns an array containing all descendants of the instance that match the selector string. |
| Instance:Remove | () | Sets the object's Parent to nil, and does the same for all its descendants. |
| Instance:remove | () | |
| Instance:RemoveTag | () | Removes a tag from the instance. |
| Instance:ResetPropertyToDefault | () | Resets a property to its default value. |
| Instance:SetAttribute | () | Sets the attribute with the given name to the given value. |
| Instance:WaitForChild | Instance | Returns the child of the Instance with the given name. If the child does not exist, it will yield the current thread until it does. |
Inherited from Object
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Object:GetPropertyChangedSignal | RBXScriptSignal | Get an event that fires when a given property of the object changes. |
| Object:IsA | boolean | Returns true if an object's class matches or inherits from a given class. |
| Object:isA | boolean |
Translator:FormatByKey
Returns the localized text string in a LocalizationTable based on its Translator locale, by key. The optional args table is used for filling format parameters in the matching text entry.
Note that this method will throw an error in the following cases:
- If none of the
LocalizationTablesavailable to thisTranslatorinclude a value for the given key. - If the format string for the key uses numbered parameters and args is not an array.
- If the format string uses named parameters and args is not a table of key-value pairs.
- If args is missing values for parameters that are used in the matching format string.
See Localize with scripting for more details and usage examples of this function.
Parameters
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| key | string | The Key value to look up and translate. | |
| args | Variant | To be provided if the Source text and translations contain format strings. Will be a Luau table of values or key-value pairs, depending on whether the format strings are numbered or named. |
Returns
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| string | The localized text string associated with the given key, with any format parameters filled in from args. |
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| security | None |
| thread safety | Unsafe |
| capabilities | ["Basic"] |
Translator:Translate
Returns the localized text string in a LocalizationTable based on its Translator locale. This string will be in the context of the provided object, given the provided Source text.
See Localize with scripting for more details and usage examples of this function.
Context Overrides
In some cases, duplicate Source strings may have completely different translations in other languages. For example, the English noun "Screen" can indicate both a computer screen and a window screen, but the Spanish translations are completely different:
| A | B | C | D | E |
| Key | Context | Source | Example | es |
| Screen | Pantalla | |||
| Screen | Mosquitero | |||
In these cases, the first argument to this function — a valid in-game Instance — can be used as a "tie breaker" when multiple GUI objects use the same source string. To implement this, specify the "path" to the Instance you'd like to override as the Context value of the translation data:
| A | B | C | D | E |
| Key | Context | Source | Example | es |
| workspace.ComputerScreen.SurfaceGui.TextLabel | Screen | Pantalla | ||
| Screen | Mosquitero | |||
Then, when calling this function in a script, pass the same Instance as the first argument, followed by the Source lookup text as the second argument:
Parameters
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| context | Instance | A valid in-game Instance to use for context override as outlined above. Note that this argument can be arbitrary, for example game, if you don't require a context override. | |
| text | string | The Source text to look up and translate. |
Returns
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| string | The translated text. |
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| security | None |
| thread safety | Unsafe |
| capabilities | ["Basic"] |
Code samples: View on Creator Hub (Translator-Translate).
Events
Inherited from Instance
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Instance.AncestryChanged | Fires when the Instance.Parent property of this object or one of its ancestors is changed. | |
| Instance.AttributeChanged | Fires whenever an attribute is changed on the Instance. | |
| Instance.ChildAdded | Fires after an object is parented to this Instance. | |
| Instance.childAdded | ||
| Instance.ChildRemoved | Fires after a child is removed from this Instance. | |
| Instance.DescendantAdded | Fires after a descendant is added to the Instance. | |
| Instance.DescendantRemoving | Fires immediately before a descendant of the Instance is removed. | |
| Instance.Destroying | Fires immediately before (or is deferred until after) the instance is destroyed via Instance:Destroy(). | |
| Instance.StyledPropertiesChanged | Fires whenever any style property is changed on the instance, including when a property is set to nil. |
Inherited from Object
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Object.Changed | Fires immediately after a property of the object changes, with some limitations. |