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Messages & plurals

Format ICU MessageFormat strings — placeholders, numbers, dates, and especially pluralisation and gender/word selection — without hardcoding any language's grammar rules.

Messages

const c = new Cosmo("en");
c.message("{count, plural, one {# file} other {# files}}", { count: 3 });
// "3 files"
c.message("{n, number} of {m, number}", { n: 4560, m: 0.2 });
// "4,560 of 0.2"

Cosmo c = new Cosmo("en");
c.message("{0, plural, one {# file} other {# files}}", 3); // varargs (positional)
// "3 files"
c.message("{0,number,integer} of {1,number}", 4560, 0.2);
// "4,560 of 0.2"

$c = new Cosmo('en');
$c->message('{0, plural, one {# file} other {# files}}', [3]);
// "3 files"
$c->message('{0,number,integer} of {1,number}', [4560, 0.2]);
// "4,560 of 0.2"

c = Cosmo("en")
c.message("{0, plural, one {# file} other {# files}}", [3])
# "3 files"
c.message("{0,number,integer} of {1,number}", [4560, 0.2])
# "4,560 of 0.2"

One subset, three full implementations

PHP, Python, and Java use ICU's full MessageFormat (all argument types, plural, selectordinal, select, named and positional args). JavaScript ships a hand-written subset over Intl.PluralRules/Intl.NumberFormat (arguments, number, plural, select) — because it bundles no data, the algorithm is allowed but the surface is slightly smaller. Python accepts a list (positional) or dict (named); Java takes a Map (named) or varargs (positional).

Plural category

Ask which LDML plural category a number falls into for the locale — the same decision ICU's MessageFormat makes internally.

const en = new Cosmo("en");
en.pluralCategory(1);           // "one"
en.pluralCategory(2);           // "other"
en.pluralCategory(2, true);     // "two"
new Cosmo("ar").pluralCategory(0); // "zero"

Cosmo en = new Cosmo("en");
en.pluralCategory(1);           // "one"
en.pluralCategory(2);           // "other"
en.pluralCategory(2, true);     // "two"
new Cosmo("ar").pluralCategory(0); // "zero"

$en = new Cosmo('en');
$en->pluralCategory(1);         // "one"
$en->pluralCategory(2);         // "other"
$en->pluralCategory(2, true);   // "two"   (ordinal: "2nd")
new Cosmo('ar')->pluralCategory(0); // "zero"

en = Cosmo("en")
en.plural_category(1)           # "one"
en.plural_category(2)           # "other"
en.plural_category(2, True)     # "two"
Cosmo("ar").plural_category(0)  # "zero"

Returns one of zero, one, two, few, many, other. Pass ordinal = true for ordinal rules (1st / 2nd / 3rd …) instead of cardinal. (Java uses real ordinal PluralRules; PHP and Python derive the ordinal category through a selectordinal trick — same result.)