Formatting with the correct plurals

When displaying messages for the user, the interaction is more pleasant if the sentences feel more human. The Go package golang.org/x/text, which is the extension package, contains this feature for formatting plurals in the correct way.

Getting ready

Execute go get -x golang.org/x/text to obtain the extension package in case you don't have it already.

How to do it...

1. Open the console and create the folder chapter03/recipe07.
2. Navigate to the directory.
3. Create the plurals.go file with the following content:

        package main

        import (
          "golang.org/x/text/feature/plural"
          "golang.org/x/text/language"
          "golang.org/x/text/message"
        )

        func main() {

          message.Set(language.English, "%d items to do",
            plural.Selectf(1, "%d", "=0", "no items to do",
              plural.One, "one item to do",
              "<100", "%[1]d items to do",
              plural.Other, "lot of items to do",
        ...