The Perl Toolchain Summit needs more sponsors. If your company depends on Perl, please support this very important event.

NAME

List::ToHumanString - write lists in strings like a human would

SYNOPSIS

    use List::ToHumanString;

    print to_human_string "Report{|s} for |list|\n", qw/March May July/;
    ## Prints "Reports for March, May, and July";

    print to_human_string "Report{|s} for |list|\n", qw/March July/;
    ## Prints "Reports for March and July";

    print to_human_string "Report{|s} {is|are} needed for |list|\n", qw/March/;
    ## Prints "Report is needed for March";

DESCRIPTION

Provides a way to make it easy to prepare a string containing a list of items, where that string is meant to be read by a human.

SEE ALSO

Lingua::Conjunction -- You might find Lingua::Conjunction more apt at joining the list of things, if that's the only thing that you're after.

EXPORTS BY DEFAULT

to_human_string

    print to_human_string "Report{|s} for |list|\n", qw/March May July/;
    ## Prints "Reports for March, May, and July";

    print to_human_string "Report{|s} for |list|\n", qw/March July/;
    ## Prints "Reports for March and July";

    print to_human_string "Report{|s} {is|are} needed for |list|\n", qw/March/;
    ## Prints "Report is needed for March";

    print to_human_string '|list|', qw/March May July/;
    ## Prints "March, May, and July";

    $List::ToHumanString::Separator   = '*SEP*';
    $List::ToHumanString::Extra_Comma = 0;
    print to_human_string "I have {one item*SEP*many items}: *SEP*list*SEP*", qw/Foo Bar Baz/;
    ## Prints "I have many items: Foo, Bar and Baz" (note the missing comma before "and")

Exported by default. Takes a string to "humanize" as the first argument and a list of items to use. Removes all undefs and empty and blank strings before counting the number of items in the list. If the list contains one item, chooses the "singular" variation in the first argument's format (see below). If the list contains any other number of items, chooses "plural" variation in the format. Once all the substitutions have been done, returns the resultant string.

first argument format

    "I have {one item|many items}"

    "I have {one item that is|many items that are} |list|"

    "I have item{|s}: |list|"

    "I have {a|} thing{|s}"

    $List::ToHumanString::Separator = '::SEP::';
    "I have {one item::SEP::many items}: ::SEP::list::SEP::",

singular/plural

to_human_string() will replace any occurence of {singularSEPARATORplural} with either the "singular" or "plural" texts, depending on the number of items in the list given to it. The "singular" and "plural" texts can be any text (even empty string) that doesn't have a SEPARATOR in it. The SEPARATOR is the value of $List::ToHumanString::Separator, which by default is a pipe character (|). Regex special characters in the SEPARATOR have no effect.

humanized list

    "I have item{|s}: |list|"

    "I have {one item::SEP::many items}: ::SEP::list::SEP::",

You can automatically insert a "humanized" list of items into your string by using word list set off be SEPARATOR string on each side. That string will be replaced by a "humanized" way to write the list of items you provided, which is as follows:

empty list of items

    to_human_string('|list|',);
    # returns ''

Humanized string will be: empty string.

1-item list of items

    to_human_string('|list|', 'foo');
    # returns 'foo'

    to_human_string('|list|', URI->new("http://example.com") );
    # returns 'http://example.com'

Humanized string will be: the item itself (stringified).

2-item list of items

    to_human_string('|list|', 'foo', 'bar');
    # returns 'foo and bar'

Humanized string will be: the two items joined with ' and '

list with 3 or more items

    to_human_string('|list|', 'foo', 'bar', 'ber', 'baz');
    # returns 'foo, bar, ber, and baz'

    $List::ToHumanString::Extra_Comma = 0;
    to_human_string('|list|', 'foo', 'bar', 'ber', 'baz');
    # returns 'foo, bar, ber and baz'

Humanized string will be: the list of items in the list you provided joined with ', ' (comma and space). The last element is also preceded by word 'and '. Note: depending on your stylistic preference, you might wish not to have a comma before the last element. You can accomplish that by setting $List::ToHumanString::Extra_Comma to zero.

VARIABLES

$List::ToHumanString::Separator

    my @items = ( 1..10 );
    $List::ToHumanString::Separator = '::SEP::';
    print to_human_string "I have {one item::SEP::many items} {foo|bar}\n", @items;
    ## Prints "I have many items {foo|bar}"

Takes any non-empty string as a value. Specifies what separator to use between the "singular" and "plural" texts in the string given to to_human_string(). Defaults to: | (a pipe character)

$List::ToHumanString::Extra_Comma

    $List::ToHumanString::Extra_Comma = 0;
    to_human_string('|list|', 'foo', 'bar', 'ber', 'baz');
    # returns 'foo, bar, ber and baz'

Takes true or false values as a value. Specifies whether to use a comma after the penultimate element in the list when using to_human_string() to insert humanized list into the string. If set to a true value, the comma will be used. Defaults to: 1 (true value).

REPOSITORY

Fork this module on GitHub: https://github.com/zoffixznet/List-ToHumanString

BUGS

To report bugs or request features, please use https://github.com/zoffixznet/List-ToHumanString/issues

If you can't access GitHub, you can email your request to bug-list-tohumanstring at rt.cpan.org

AUTHOR

ZOFFIX ZOFFIX

LICENSE

You can use and distribute this module under the same terms as Perl itself. See the LICENSE file included in this distribution for complete details.