MESSAGEFORMATTER(3)							 1						       MESSAGEFORMATTER(3)

The MessageFormatter class

INTRODUCTION

	MessageFormatter  is  a concrete class that enables users to produce concatenated, language-neutral messages. The methods supplied in this
       class are used to build all the messages that are seen by end users.

	The MessageFormatter class assembles messages from various fragments (such as text fragments, numbers, and dates) supplied by the program.
       Because of the MessageFormatter class, the program does not need to know the order of the fragments. The class uses the formatting specifi-
       cations for the fragments to assemble them into a message that is contained in a single string within a resource bundle. For example,  Mes-
       sageFormatter  enables  you  to	print  the phrase "Finished printing x out of y files..." in a manner that still allows for flexibility in
       translation.

	Previously, an end user message was created as a sentence and handled as a string. This procedure created problems for localizers  because
       the  sentence structure, word order, number format and so on are very different from language to language. The language-neutral way to cre-
       ate messages keeps each part of the message separate and provides keys to the data. Using these keys, the MessageFormatter class  can  con-
       catenate the parts of the message, localize them, and display a well-formed string to the end user.

	MessageFormatter  takes a set of objects, formats them, and then inserts the formatted strings into the pattern at the appropriate places.
       Choice formats can be used in conjunction with MessageFormatter to handle plurals, match numbers, and select from an array of items.  Typi-
       cally, the message format will come from resources and the arguments will be dynamically set at runtime.

CLASS SYNOPSIS

       MessageFormatter

       MessageFormatter

       Methods

       o public MessageFormatter::__construct (string  $locale, string	$pattern)

       o publicstatic MessageFormatter MessageFormatter::create (string  $locale, string  $pattern)

       o publicstatic string MessageFormatter::formatMessage (string  $locale, string  $pattern, array	$args)

       o public string MessageFormatter::format (array	$args)

       o public int MessageFormatter::getErrorCode (void  )

       o public string MessageFormatter::getErrorMessage (void	)

       o public string MessageFormatter::getLocale (void  )

       o public string MessageFormatter::getPattern (void  )

       o publicstatic array MessageFormatter::parseMessage (string  $locale, string  $pattern, string  $source)

       o public array MessageFormatter::parse (string  $value)

       o public bool MessageFormatter::setPattern (string  $pattern)

SEE ALSO

	      o ICU formatting documentation

	      o ICU message formatting description

	      oICU message formatters

	      oICU choice formatters

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