Clever way to append 's' for plural form in .Net (syntactic sugar)
Solution 1
You can create a custom formatter that does that:
public class PluralFormatProvider : IFormatProvider, ICustomFormatter {
public object GetFormat(Type formatType) {
return this;
}
public string Format(string format, object arg, IFormatProvider formatProvider) {
string[] forms = format.Split(';');
int value = (int)arg;
int form = value == 1 ? 0 : 1;
return value.ToString() + " " + forms[form];
}
}
The Console.WriteLine
method has no overload that takes a custom formatter, so you have to use String.Format
:
Console.WriteLine(String.Format(
new PluralFormatProvider(),
"You have {0:life;lives} left, {1:apple;apples} and {2:eye;eyes}.",
1, 0, 2)
);
Output:
You have 1 life left, 0 apples and 2 eyes.
Note: This is the bare minimum to make a formatter work, so it doesn't handle any other formats or data types. Ideally it would detect the format and data type, and pass the formatting on to a default formatter if there is some other formatting or data types in the string.
Solution 2
You may checkout the PluralizationService class which is part of the .NET 4.0 framework:
string lives = "life";
if (player.Lives != 1)
{
lives = PluralizationService
.CreateService(new CultureInfo("en-US"))
.Pluralize(lives);
}
Console.WriteLine("You have {0} {1} left", player.Lives, lives);
It is worth noting that only English is supported for the moment. Warning, this don't work on the Net Framework 4.0 Client Profile!
You could also write an extension method:
public static string Pluralize(this string value, int count)
{
if (count == 1)
{
return value;
}
return PluralizationService
.CreateService(new CultureInfo("en-US"))
.Pluralize(value);
}
And then:
Console.WriteLine(
"You have {0} {1} left", player.Lives, "life".Pluralize(player.Lives)
);
Solution 3
With the newfangled interpolated strings, I just use something like this:
// n is the number of connection attempts
Console.WriteLine($"Needed {n} attempt{(n!=1 ? "s" : "")} to connect...");
EDIT: just ran across this answer again--since I originally posted this, I've been using an extension method that makes it even easier. This example is ordered by peculiarity:
static class Extensions {
/// <summary>
/// Pluralize: takes a word, inserts a number in front, and makes the word plural if the number is not exactly 1.
/// </summary>
/// <example>"{n.Pluralize("maid")} a-milking</example>
/// <param name="word">The word to make plural</param>
/// <param name="number">The number of objects</param>
/// <param name="pluralSuffix">An optional suffix; "s" is the default.</param>
/// <param name="singularSuffix">An optional suffix if the count is 1; "" is the default.</param>
/// <returns>Formatted string: "number word[suffix]", pluralSuffix (default "s") only added if the number is not 1, otherwise singularSuffix (default "") added</returns>
internal static string Pluralize(this int number, string word, string pluralSuffix = "s", string singularSuffix = "")
{
return $@"{number} {word}{(number != 1 ? pluralSuffix : singularSuffix)}";
}
}
void Main()
{
int lords = 0;
int partridges = 1;
int geese = 1;
int ladies = 8;
Console.WriteLine($@"Have {lords.Pluralize("lord")}, {partridges.Pluralize("partridge")}, {ladies.Pluralize("lad", "ies", "y")}, and {geese.Pluralize("", "geese", "goose")}");
lords = 1;
partridges = 2;
geese = 6;
ladies = 1;
Console.WriteLine($@"Have {lords.Pluralize("lord")}, {partridges.Pluralize("partridge")}, {ladies.Pluralize("lad", "ies", "y")}, and {geese.Pluralize("", "geese", "goose")}");
}
(formats are the same). The output is:
Have 0 lords, 1 partridge, 8 ladies, and 1 goose
Have 1 lord, 2 partridges, 1 lady, and 6 geese
Solution 4
using @Darin Dimitrov solution, I would create an extention for string ....
public static Extentions
{
public static string Pluralize(this string str,int n)
{
if ( n != 1 )
return PluralizationService.CreateService(new CultureInfo("en-US"))
.Pluralize(str);
return str;
}
}
string.format("you have {0} {1} remaining",liveCount,"life".Pluralize());
Solution 5
string message = string.format("You have {0} left.", player.Lives == 1 ? "life" : "lives");
Of course this assumes that you have a finite number of values to pluralize.
THX-1138
Updated on January 12, 2020Comments
-
THX-1138 over 4 years
I want to be able to type something like:
Console.WriteLine("You have {0:life/lives} left.", player.Lives);
instead of
Console.WriteLine("You have {0} {1} left.", player.Lives, player.Lives == 1 ? "life" : "lives");
so that for
player.Lives == 1
the output would be:You have 1 life left.
forplayer.Lives != 1
:You have 5 lives left.
or
Console.WriteLine("{0:day[s]} till doomsday.", tillDoomsdayTimeSpan);
Some systems have that built-in. How close can I get to that notation in C#?
EDIT: Yes, I am specifically looking for syntactic sugar, and not a method to determine what singular/plural forms are.