class method self.translate

Translates, pluralizes and interpolates a given key using a given locale, scope, and default, as well as interpolation values.

LOOKUP

Translation data is organized as a nested hash using the upper-level keys as namespaces. E.g., ActionView ships with the translation: :date => {:formats => {:short => "%b %d"}}.

Translations can be looked up at any level of this hash using the key argument and the scope option. E.g., in this example I18n.t :date returns the whole translations hash {:formats => {:short => "%b %d"}}.

Key can be either a single key or a dot-separated key (both Strings and Symbols work). E.g., the short format can be looked up using both:

I18n.t 'date.formats.short'
I18n.t :'date.formats.short'

Scope can be either a single key, a dot-separated key or an array of keys or dot-separated keys. Keys and scopes can be combined freely. So these examples will all look up the same short date format:

I18n.t 'date.formats.short'
I18n.t 'formats.short', :scope => 'date'
I18n.t 'short', :scope => 'date.formats'
I18n.t 'short', :scope => %w(date formats)

INTERPOLATION

Translations can contain interpolation variables which will be replaced by values passed to #translate as part of the options hash, with the keys matching the interpolation variable names.

E.g., with a translation :foo => "foo %{bar}" the option value for the key bar will be interpolated into the translation:

I18n.t :foo, :bar => 'baz' # => 'foo baz'

PLURALIZATION

Translation data can contain pluralized translations. Pluralized translations are arrays of singluar/plural versions of translations like ['Foo', 'Foos'].

Note that I18n::Backend::Simple only supports an algorithm for English pluralization rules. Other algorithms can be supported by custom backends.

This returns the singular version of a pluralized translation:

I18n.t :foo, :count => 1 # => 'Foo'

These both return the plural version of a pluralized translation:

I18n.t :foo, :count => 0 # => 'Foos'
I18n.t :foo, :count => 2 # => 'Foos'

The :count option can be used both for pluralization and interpolation. E.g., with the translation :foo => ['%{count} foo', '%{count} foos'], count will be interpolated to the pluralized translation:

I18n.t :foo, :count => 1 # => '1 foo'

DEFAULTS

This returns the translation for :foo or default if no translation was found:

I18n.t :foo, :default => 'default'

This returns the translation for :foo or the translation for :bar if no translation for :foo was found:

I18n.t :foo, :default => :bar

Returns the translation for :foo or the translation for :bar or default if no translations for :foo and :bar were found.

I18n.t :foo, :default => [:bar, 'default']

*BULK LOOKUP*

This returns an array with the translations for :foo and :bar.

I18n.t [:foo, :bar]

Can be used with dot-separated nested keys:

I18n.t [:'baz.foo', :'baz.bar']

Which is the same as using a scope option:

I18n.t [:foo, :bar], :scope => :baz

LAMBDAS

Both translations and defaults can be given as Ruby lambdas. Lambdas will be called and passed the key and options.

E.g. assuming the key :salutation resolves to:

lambda { |key, options| options[:gender] == 'm' ? "Mr. %{options[:name]}" : "Mrs. %{options[:name]}" }

Then <tt>I18n.t(:salutation, :gender => ‘w’, :name => ‘Smith’) will result in “Mrs. Smith”.

It is recommended to use/implement lambdas in an “idempotent” way. E.g. when a cache layer is put in front of I18n.translate it will generate a cache key from the argument values passed to #translate. Therefor your lambdas should always return the same translations/values per unique combination of argument values.