PluralRules

The Intl.PluralRules object is a constructor for objects that enable plural sensitive formatting and plural language language rules.

Syntax

new Intl.PluralRules([locales[, options]])
Intl.PluralRules.call(this[, locales[, options]])

Parameters

locales

Optional. A string with a BCP 47 language tag, or an array of such strings. For the general form and interpretation of the locales argument, see the Intl page.

options

Optional. An object with some or all of the following properties:

localeMatcher

The locale matching algorithm to use. Possible values are "lookup" and "best fit"; the default is "best fit". For information about this option, see the Intl page.

type

The type to use. Possible values are:

• "cardinal" for cardinal numbers (refering to the quantity of things). This is the default value.
• "ordinal" for ordinal number (refering to the ordering or ranking of things, e.g. "1st", "2nd", "3rd" in English).

Description

Properties

Intl.PluralRules.prototype

Allows the addition of properties to all objects.

Methods

Intl.PluralRules.supportedLocalesOf()

Returns an array containing those of the provided locales that are supported without having to fall back to the runtime's default locale.

PluralRules instances

Properties

PluralRules instances inherit the following properties from their prototype:

Intl.PluralRules.prototype.constructor

A reference to Intl.PluralRules.

Methods

PluralRules instances inherit the following methods from their prototype:

Intl.Plural.prototype.resolvedOptions()

Returns a new object with properties reflecting the locale and collation options computed during initialization of the object.

Intl.PluralRules.prototype.select()

Returns a String indicating which plurar rule to use for locale-aware formatting.

Examples

Basic usage

In basic use without specifying a locale, a formatted string in the default locale and with default options is returned. This is useful to distinguish between singular and plural forms, e.g. "dog" and "dogs".

var pr = new Intl.PluralRules();

pr.select(0);
// → 'other' if in US English locale

pr.select(1); 
// → 'one' if in US English locale

pr.select(2);
// → 'other' if in US English locale

Using locales

This example shows some of the variations in localized plural rules. In order to get the format of the language used in the user interface of your application, make sure to specify that language (and possibly some fallback languages) using the locales argument:

// Arabic has different plural rules

new Intl.PluralRules('ar-EG').select(0);
// → 'zero'
new Intl.PluralRules('ar-EG').select(1); 
// → 'one'
new Intl.PluralRules('ar-EG').select(2);
// → 'two'
new Intl.PluralRules('ar-EG').select(6);
// → 'few'
new Intl.PluralRules('ar-EG').select(18);
// → 'many'

Using options

The results can be customized using the options argument, which has one property called type which you can set to ordinal. This is useful to figure out the ordinal indicator, e.g. "1st", "2nd", "3rd", "4th", "42nd" and so forth.

var pr = new Intl.PluralRules('en-US', { type: 'ordinal' });

pr.select(0);
// → 'other'
pr.select(1);
// → 'one'
pr.select(2);
// → 'two'
pr.select(3);
// → 'few'
pr.select(4);
// → 'other'
pr.select(42);
// → 'two'

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Introduction: The ECMAScript Internationalization API
• Constructors
  • Intl.Collator
  • Intl.DateTimeFormat
  • Intl.NumberFormat
• Methods
  • String.prototype.localeCompare()
  • Number.prototype.toLocaleString()
  • Date.prototype.toLocaleString()
  • Date.prototype.toLocaleDateString()
  • Date.prototype.toLocaleTimeString()