Posted by john.d.mann@sbcglobal.net on 01/15/06 15:31

Bosconian wrote:
> This might seem like a trivial thing, but has anyone has come up with a
> better way of outputting a singular vs. plural string?
>
> For example:
>
> // default plural label
> $string = "appointments";
> // singular label
> if (mysql_num_rows($results) == 1) $string = "appointment";
> print mysql_num_rows($results) . $string;
>
> $results always contain 1 or more records so "0 appointments" is not
> applicable.
>
> Is there a way to do this in one line (perhaps with regular expressions)
> without resorting to something lame like "1 appointment(s)"?
>
> Again, no biggie and the above syntax is tried and true, but it's always
> nice to learn a new trick now and then.
>
> Thanks.
>
>

Well, you can always put that code into a function in its own php file
and then just include it in your php file which will use it... Then you
could call it on one line each time you needed it. For example:

include('printplural.php');
....
print_plural($mystring, $db_result);
....

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