Arabic number in Arabic text in Android

Set your TypeFace as per below for Arabic

Typeface font = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), "fonts/abcd.TTF");

abcd is Arabic font.

textview.setTypeface(font);

There's such issue in Google's bugtracker: Arabic numerals in arabic language intead of Hindu-Arabic numeral system

If particularly Egypt locale doesn't work due to some customer's issue(I can understand it), then you can format your string to any other western locales. For example:

 NumberFormat nf = NumberFormat.getInstance(new Locale("en","US")); //or "nb","No" - for Norway
 String sDistance = nf.format(distance);
 distanceTextView.setText(String.format(getString(R.string.distance), sDistance));

If solution with new Locale doesn't work at all, there's an ugly workaround:

public String replaceArabicNumbers(String original) {
    return original.replaceAll("١","1")
                    .replaceAll("٢","2")
                    .replaceAll("٣","3")
                    .....;
}

(and variations around it with Unicodes matching (U+0661,U+0662,...). See more similar ideas here)

Upd1: To avoid calling formatting strings one by one everywhere, I'd suggest to create a tiny Tool method:

public final class Tools {

    static NumberFormat numberFormat = NumberFormat.getInstance(new Locale("en","US"));

    public static String getString(Resources resources, int stringId, Object... formatArgs) {
        if (formatArgs == null || formatArgs.length == 0) {
            return resources.getString(stringId, formatArgs);
        }

        Object[] formattedArgs = new Object[formatArgs.length];
        for (int i = 0; i < formatArgs.length; i++) {
            formattedArgs[i] = (formatArgs[i] instanceof Number) ?
                                  numberFormat.format(formatArgs[i]) :
                                  formatArgs[i];
        }
        return resources.getString(stringId, formattedArgs);
    }
}

....

distanceText.setText(Tools.getString(getResources(), R.string.distance, 24));

Or to override the default TextView and handle it in setText(CharSequence text, BufferType type)

public class TextViewWithArabicDigits extends TextView {
    public TextViewWithArabicDigits(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public TextViewWithArabicDigits(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    @Override
    public void setText(CharSequence text, BufferType type) {
        super.setText(replaceArabicNumbers(text), type);
    }

    private String replaceArabicNumbers(CharSequence original) {
        if (original != null) {
            return original.toString().replaceAll("١","1")
                    .replaceAll("٢","2")
                    .replaceAll("٣","3")
                    ....;
        }

        return null;
    }
}

I hope, it helps


There is an easy way. Taking your integer number and format it to string, and it will apply localization implicitly to numbers by this method:

String YourNumberString = String.format("%d", YourNumberInteger);

So 123 will become ١٢٣ and so on.

For more information see section "Format numbers" at: https://developer.android.com/training/basics/supporting-devices/languages