Let us learn PluralizationServices of .NET 4.0

Introduction

Sometimes we may need to get the plural or singular of words.We can build our own by creating our data structure.However, from dotnet 4.0, we have the "PluralizationServices" that helps us to do so.We can find it in System.Data.Entity.Design.PluralizationServices.PluralizationService

In this article, we will look into it.

So what is "PluralizationService"?

The "PluralizationService" is an abstract class and provides methods for constructing plural and singular forms of words.

It is found in the System.Data.Entity.Design.dll under the System.Data.Entity.Design.PluralizationServices namespace. It has the below methods and properties

As can be figure out that,it is an abstract class and so cannot be directly instantiated.However, there is a static method CreateService that helps to do so(we will see that in code example).This method creates a System.Data.Entity.Design.PluralizationServices.PluralizationService that applies language rules that correspond to the specified System.Globalization.CultureInfo.At present, it supports only "en-us".

The IsPlural method returns a boolean "true" if the specified word is plural.

The IsSingular method returns a boolean "true" if the specified word is singular.

The Pluralize method returns the plural form of the specified word.

The Singularize method returns the singular form of the specified word.

Straight to Experiment

Fire up a console application and add reference to "System.Data.Entity.Design".Make sure that the Target Framework is .NET Framework 4 (is not .NET Framework Client Profile)

Next write the below code

 class Program
{
	static void Main(string[] args)
	{  
		//creates an instance of the service
		PluralizationService ps = PluralizationService.CreateService(CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-us"));

		//check if the supplied word is plural
		var isPlural = ps.IsPlural("mangoes"); //true

		//check if the supplied word is singular
		var isSingular = ps.IsSingular("mangoe"); //true

		//change a singular word to plural
		var pluralWord = ps.Pluralize("boy"); //result: boys

		//change a plural word to singular
		var singularWord = ps.Singularize("girls"); //result: girl

	   
	}
}

The code is self explanatory.We are just playing with the various methods being exposed with the API.

A word about ICustomPluralizationMapping

We can however, create our own singular and plural words.For that reason, we need the help of "ICustomPluralizationMapping" interface.It represents a collection of the singular and plural forms of words.

It has only one method

void AddWord(string singular, string plural)

The method adds singular and plural forms of a word to the System.Data.Entity.Design.PluralizationServices.ICustomPluralizationMapping object.So let us put it into experiment

//Add custom singular and plural word using the AddWord method of ICustomPluralizationMapping 
ICustomPluralizationMapping customMapping = ps as ICustomPluralizationMapping;

// Add a new word mapping 
customMapping.AddWord("daughter-in-law", "daughters-in-law");

var thePlural = ps.Pluralize("daughter-in-law"); //result: daughters-in-law
var theSingular = ps.Singularize("daughters-in-law"); //result: daughter-in-law

References

PluralizationService Class

Conclusion

Hope this tutorial has given a little insight about the PluralizationServices API of dotnet4.0.This may be helpful to others.Thanks for reading.Zipped file is attached herewith.