1NGETTEXT(3)                Library Functions Manual                NGETTEXT(3)
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NAME

6       ngettext,  dngettext,  dcngettext - translate message and choose plural
7       form
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SYNOPSIS

10       #include <libintl.h>
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12       char * ngettext (const char * msgid, const char * msgid_plural,
13                        unsigned long int n);
14       char * dngettext (const char * domainname,
15                         const char * msgid, const char * msgid_plural,
16                         unsigned long int n);
17       char * dcngettext (const char * domainname,
18                          const char * msgid, const char * msgid_plural,
19                          unsigned long int n, int category);
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DESCRIPTION

22       The ngettext, dngettext and dcngettext functions attempt to translate a
23       text  string  into the user's native language, by looking up the appro‐
24       priate plural form of the translation in a message catalog.
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26       Plural forms are grammatical variants depending on the a  number.  Some
27       languages  have  two forms, called singular and plural. Other languages
28       have three forms, called singular, dual and plural. There are also lan‐
29       guages with four forms.
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31       The ngettext, dngettext and dcngettext functions work like the gettext,
32       dgettext and dcgettext  functions,  respectively.   Additionally,  they
33       choose  the  appropriate plural form, which depends on the number n and
34       the language of the message catalog where the translation was found.
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36       In the "C" locale, or if none of the used catalogs contain  a  transla‐
37       tion for msgid, the ngettext, dngettext and dcngettext functions return
38       msgid if n == 1, or msgid_plural if n != 1.
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RETURN VALUE

41       If a translation was found in one of the specified catalogs, the appro‐
42       priate  plural  form is converted to the locale's codeset and returned.
43       The resulting string is statically allocated and must not  be  modified
44       or  freed.  Otherwise  msgid  or msgid_plural is returned, as described
45       above.
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ERRORS

48       errno is not modified.
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BUGS

51       The return type ought to be const char *, but is char * to avoid  warn‐
52       ings in C code predating ANSI C.
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SEE ALSO

55       gettext(3), dgettext(3), dcgettext(3)
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59GNU gettext 0.17                   May 2001                        NGETTEXT(3)
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