kuwamoto.org

At some point, I should post about what I have been doing over the past few months. Suffice it to say that I am tinkering around with a few ideas and getting reacquainted with things like PHP and AJAX.

In the meantime, here is a small code snippet for how to pluralize in PHP. The original code came from two sources:

http://www.eval.ca/articles/php-pluralize (no license specified)
http://solarphp.com (BSD license)

The first source derives from the Rails source, which is covered under the MIT license. Since the BSD license is a tiny tiny bit more restrictive than the MIT license, I think that means that this code is covered under BSD.

I made a few changes from the two original versions:

1. Started with www.eval.ca version
2. Changed nested arrays to associative array and wrapped it in a class
3. Added unpluralization rules from solarphp.com
4. Changed suspicious pluralization rules
1. Removed unorthodox virus -> viri in favor of general rule for *us -> *uses (e.g., viruses, cactuses, caucuses)
2. I noticed a rule for buffalo -> buffaloes and tomato -> tomatoes but not one for potato->potatoes. I added it.

One quibble. It kind of bothers me that these algorithms have such specific rules for pluralizations that are unlikely to come up in computer software (ox -> oxen? octopus -> octopi?) and yet the rules are obviously not complete, because I found at least three problems just by inspection. Whether you agree or disagree with how I pluralized virus, the plural of cactus is not cactus, the plural of caucus is not caucus, and the plural of potato is not potatos.

Did I miss any pluralizations? Did I overstep my bounds by adding a rule that says *us -> *uses?

// Thanks to http://www.eval.ca/articles/php-pluralize (MIT license)
// As well as http://solarphp.com/trac/changeset/2214?format=diff&new=2214 (BSD license)

// Changes:
//   Removed rule for virus -> viri
//   Added rule for potato -> potatoes
//   Added rule for *us -> *uses

class Inflect
{
    static $plural = array(
        '/(quiz)$/i'               => "$1zes",
        '/^(ox)$/i'                => "$1en",
        '/([m|l])ouse$/i'          => "$1ice",
        '/(matr|vert|ind)ix|ex$/i' => "$1ices",
        '/(x|ch|ss|sh)$/i'         => "$1es",
        '/([^aeiouy]|qu)y$/i'      => "$1ies",
        '/([^aeiouy]|qu)ies$/i'    => "$1y",
        '/(hive)$/i'               => "$1s",
        '/(?:([^f])fe|([lr])f)$/i' => "$1$2ves",
        '/sis$/i'                  => "ses",
        '/([ti])um$/i'             => "$1a",
        '/(buffal|tomat|potat)o$/i'=> "$1oes",
        '/(bu)s$/i'                => "$1ses",
        '/(alias|status)$/i'       => "$1es",
        '/(octop)us$/i'            => "$1i",
        '/(ax|test)is$/i'          => "$1es",
        '/us$/i'                   => "$1es",
        '/s$/i'                    => "s",
        '/$/'                      => "s"
    );
    
    static $singular = array(
        '/(n)ews$/i'                => "$1ews",
        '/([ti])a$/i'               => "$1um",
        '/((a)naly|(b)a|(d)iagno|(p)arenthe|(p)rogno|(s)ynop|(t)he)ses$/i'  => "$1$2sis",
        '/(^analy)ses$/i'           => "$1sis",
        '/([^f])ves$/i'             => "$1fe",
        '/(hive)s$/i'               => "$1",
        '/(tive)s$/i'               => "$1",
        '/([lr])ves$/i'             => "$1f",
        '/([^aeiouy]|qu)ies$/i'     => "$1y",
        '/(s)eries$/i'              => "$1eries",
        '/(m)ovies$/i'              => "$1ovie",
        '/(x|ch|ss|sh)es$/i'        => "$1",
        '/([m|l])ice$/i'            => "$1ouse",
        '/(bus)es$/i'               => "$1",
        '/(o)es$/i'                 => "$1",
        '/(shoe)s$/i'               => "$1",
        '/(cris|ax|test)es$/i'      => "$1is",
        '/(octop|vir)i$/i'          => "$1us",
        '/(alias|status)es$/i'      => "$1",
        '/^(ox)en$/i'               => "$1",
        '/(vert|ind)ices$/i'        => "$1ex",
        '/(matr)ices$/i'            => "$1ix",
        '/(quiz)zes$/i'             => "$1",
        '/(us)es$/i'                => "$1",
        '/s$/i'                     => ""
    );
    
    static $irregular = array(
        array( 'move',   'moves'    ),
        array( 'sex',    'sexes'    ),
        array( 'child',  'children' ),
        array( 'man',    'men'      ),
        array( 'person', 'people'   )
    );
    
    static $uncountable = array( 
        'sheep', 
        'fish',
        'series',
        'species',
        'money',
        'rice',
        'information',
        'equipment'
    );
    
    public static function pluralize( $string ) 
    {
        // save some time in the case that singular and plural are the same
        if ( in_array( strtolower( $string ), self::$uncountable ) )
            return $string;
            
    
        // check for irregular singular forms
        foreach ( self::$irregular as $noun )
        {
            if ( strtolower( $string ) == $noun[0] )
            return $noun[1];
        }
        
        // check for matches using regular expressions
        foreach ( self::$plural as $pattern => $result )
        {
            if ( preg_match( $pattern, $string ) )
                return preg_replace( $pattern, $result, $string );
        }
        
        return $string;
    }
    
    public static function singularize( $string )
    {
        // save some time in the case that singular and plural are the same
        if ( in_array( strtolower( $string ), self::$uncountable ) )
            return $string;

        // check for irregular singular forms
        foreach ( self::$irregular as $noun )
        {
            if ( strtolower( $string ) == $noun[1] )
            return $noun[0];
        }
        
        // check for matches using regular expressions
        foreach ( self::$singular as $pattern => $result )
        {
            if ( preg_match( $pattern, $string ) )
                return preg_replace( $pattern, $result, $string );
        }
        
        return $string;
    }
    
    public static function pluralize_if($count, $string)
    {
        if ($count == 1)
            return "1 $string";
        else
            return $count . " " . self::pluralize($string);
    }
}

Enjoy!