How to get Locale from its String representation in Java?

See the Locale.getLanguage(), Locale.getCountry()... Store this combination in the database instead of the "programatic name"...
When you want to build the Locale back, use public Locale(String language, String country)

Here is a sample code :)

// May contain simple syntax error, I don't have java right now to test..
// but this is a bigger picture for your algo...
public String localeToString(Locale l) {
    return l.getLanguage() + "," + l.getCountry();
}

public Locale stringToLocale(String s) {
    StringTokenizer tempStringTokenizer = new StringTokenizer(s,",");
    if(tempStringTokenizer.hasMoreTokens())
    String l = tempStringTokenizer.nextElement();
    if(tempStringTokenizer.hasMoreTokens())
    String c = tempStringTokenizer.nextElement();
    return new Locale(l,c);
}

Method that returns locale from string exists in commons-lang library: LocaleUtils.toLocale(localeAsString)

Since Java 7 there is factory method Locale.forLanguageTag and instance method Locale.toLanguageTag using IETF language tags.

1. Java provides lot of things with proper implementation lot of complexity can be avoided. This returns ms_MY.

   String key = "ms-MY";
   Locale locale = new Locale.Builder().setLanguageTag(key).build();
   

2. Apache Commons has LocaleUtils to help parse a string representation. This will return en_US

   String str = "en-US";
   Locale locale =  LocaleUtils.toLocale(str);
   System.out.println(locale.toString());
   

3. You can also use locale constructors.

   // Construct a locale from a language code.(eg: en)
   new Locale(String language)
   // Construct a locale from language and country.(eg: en and US)
   new Locale(String language, String country)
   // Construct a locale from language, country and variant.
   new Locale(String language, String country, String variant)
   

Please check this LocaleUtils and this Locale to explore more methods.