ngettext, dngettext, dcngettext - translate message and choose plural form
#include <libintl.h>
char * ngettext (const char * msgid, const char * msgid_plural,
unsigned long int n);
char * dngettext (const char * domainname,
const char * msgid, const char * msgid_plural,
unsigned long int n);
char * dcngettext (const char * domainname,
const char * msgid, const char * msgid_plural,
unsigned long int n, int category);
The
ngettext,
dngettext and
dcngettext functions attempt to
translate a text string into the user's native language, by looking up the
appropriate plural form of the translation in a message catalog.
Plural forms are grammatical variants depending on the a number. Some languages
have two forms, called singular and plural. Other languages have three forms,
called singular, dual and plural. There are also languages with four forms.
The
ngettext,
dngettext and
dcngettext functions work like
the
gettext,
dgettext and
dcgettext functions,
respectively. Additionally, they choose the appropriate plural form, which
depends on the number
n and the language of the message catalog where
the translation was found.
In the "C" locale, or if none of the used catalogs contain a
translation for
msgid, the
ngettext,
dngettext and
dcngettext functions return
msgid if
n == 1, or
msgid_plural if
n != 1.
If a translation was found in one of the specified catalogs, the appropriate
plural form is converted to the locale's codeset and returned. The resulting
string is statically allocated and must not be modified or freed. Otherwise
msgid or
msgid_plural is returned, as described above.
errno is not modified.
The return type ought to be
const char *, but is
char * to avoid
warnings in C code predating ANSI C.
gettext(3),
dgettext(3),
dcgettext(3)