Plural

Joomla language strings support singular & plural. The following example demonstrates the usage of the Text::plural call where $ids is an array of element id's:

mod_example Template File Plural example

use Joomla\CMS\Language\Text;

echo Text::plural('MOD_EXAMPLE_N_ITEMS_FOUND', count($ids));

MOD_EXAMPLE Language File

MOD_EXAMPLE_N_ITEMS_FOUND="%d items found."
MOD_EXAMPLE_N_ITEMS_FOUND_0="No items found."
MOD_EXAMPLE_N_ITEMS_FOUND_1="Only one item found."
MOD_EXAMPLE_N_ITEMS_FOUND_2="Two items found."

If the array $ids contains only one element, the language string for MOD_EXAMPLE_N_ITEMS_FOUND_1 is output, if there are two MOD_EXAMPLE_N_ITEMS_FOUND_2 or MOD_EXAMPLE_N_ITEMS_FOUND for three or more elements.

info

The plural method takes care of using the most appropriate translation constant (taking into account the effective number and the defined constants including suffix in the language file such as "_1, _2, ... , _MORE, _OTHER"), if no pluralisation is found in the language constants, Joomla! will use the "base" constant which is defined when calling the function.

The Constants More & Other

In addition to the named sets, the plural method can also be used with the keywords MORE or OTHER, whereby OTHER is primarily used by the plural method if both are defined:

Given are the following translation strings:

MOD_EXAMPLE Language File

MOD_EXAMPLE_N_APPLES_MSG="Apples"
MOD_EXAMPLE_N_APPLES_MSG_5="There are exactly five apples"
MOD_EXAMPLE_N_APPLES_MSG_MORE="There are %d apples."
MOD_EXAMPLE_N_APPLES_MSG_OTHER="There are a lot of apples."

If the method is now called with a value greater than 5:

Calling the Text::plural Method

use Joomla\CMS\Language\Text;

$n = 6;
echo Text::plural("MOD_EXAMPLE_N_APPLES_MSG", $n);

Result if $n is greater than 5

There are a lot of apples.

Joomla! is using the translation with the OTHER constant. It makes no difference whether the translation is defined with the constant MORE in the language file before or after MOD_EXAMPLE_N_APPLES_MSG_OTHER will be preferred if defined.

The same applies if $n has a value smaller than the defined values. Even if $n has a value of 3 in this example, the translation MOD_EXAMPLE_N_APPLES_MSG_OTHER from Joomla! will still be used. However, when the translation with the constant OTHER is removed from the language file, Joomla! will then use the translation with the language constant MORE to display translations in plural for a not exactly defined quantity.

MOD_EXAMPLE Language File without OTHER Definition

MOD_EXAMPLE_N_APPLES_MSG="Apples"
MOD_EXAMPLE_N_APPLES_MSG_5="There are exactly five apples"
MOD_EXAMPLE_N_APPLES_MSG_MORE="There are %d apples."

Calling the Text::plural Method with MORE Constant

use Joomla\CMS\Language\Text;

$n = 3;
echo Text::plural("MOD_EXAMPLE_N_APPLES_MSG", $n);

Result if $n is smaller than 5

There are 3 apples.