What is the correct way to translate ordinal numbers?

[mrtnzlml]

With plural (cardinal) numbers it's really simple: to my best knowledge, you mark the plurals with fbt:plural, extract all combinations (which is 2 for English), and via variations, you can translate any number of plurals for the specific language.

So say in English (CLDR), you'd extract:

ONE:   {number} car
OTHER: {number} cars

But in Czech (CLDR), the translator would prepare 3 variants that you can apply easily since FBT understand Czech plurals thanks to CLDR:

ONE:   {number} auto
FEW:   {number} auta
OTHER: {number} aut

For Arabic, you'd prepare 6 variants. Easy enough.

Now, the ordinal numbers are a bit different. In English you'd need:

ONE:   1st car, 21st car, …
TWO:   2nd car, 22nd car, …
FEW:   3rd car, 23rd car, …
OTHER: 4th car, 11th car, …

These 4 combinations have to translate into only one ordinal variant in Czech though:

OTHER: 1. auto

So the question is: what is the best way how to handle ordinal numbers in FBT? 🤔

Thank you very much for your insights! 😎

[pkqinys]

Unfortunately, akaik there isn't an easy way to write numbers in ordinal form. One workaround is to use fbt:enum and write all ordinals explicitly as enum values.

I.e.

  FIRST: 1st car
  SECOND: 2nd car
  THIRD: 3rd car
  FOURTH: 4th car
  ...
  ELEVENTH: 11th car
  ...
  TWENTY_FIRST: 21st car
  TWENTY_SECOND: 22nd car
  TWENTY_THIRD: 23rd car

[mrtnzlml]

I see, so something like this, right?

<fbt desc="example string">
  <fbt:enum
    enum-range={{
      FIRST: '1st car',
      SECOND: '2nd car',
      THIRD: '3rd car',
      FOURTH: '4th car',
    }}
    value={'FIRST'}
  />{' '}
  wins!
</fbt>

I guess that's good enough for simple situations. For more complex cases you can always downgrade to simple JS logic:

const getOrdinalString = (n) => {
  if (n % 10 === 1 && n % 100 !== 11) {
    return fbt(fbt.param('number', n) + 'st car wins!', 'example');
  } else if (n % 10 === 2 && n % 100 !== 12) {
    return fbt(fbt.param('number', n) + 'nd car wins!', 'example');
  } else if (n % 10 === 3 && n % 100 !== 13) {
    return fbt(fbt.param('number', n) + 'rd car wins!', 'example');
  } else {
    return fbt(fbt.param('number', n) + 'th car wins!', 'example');
  }
};

Thank you for your answer! 😎