---
name: "Locale::Maketext::Fuzzy"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "liblocale-maketext-fuzzy-perl"
version: "0.11-3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Locale::Maketext::Fuzzy"
---

# Locale::Maketext::Fuzzy(3pm)

Maketext from already interpolated strings

## NAME

Locale::Maketext::Fuzzy - Maketext from already interpolated strings

## SYNOPSIS

```
    package MyApp::L10N;
    use base 'Locale::Maketext::Fuzzy'; # instead of Locale::Maketext
    package MyApp::L10N::de;
    use base 'MyApp::L10N';
    our %Lexicon = (
        # Exact match should always be preferred if possible
        "0 camels were released."
            => "Exact match",
        # Fuzzy match candidate
        "[quant,_1,camel was,camels were] released."
            => "[quant,_1,Kamel wurde,Kamele wurden] freigegeben.",
        # This could also match fuzzily, but is less preferred
        "[_2] released[_1]"
            => "[_1][_2] ist frei[_1]",
    );
    package main;
    my $lh = MyApp::L10N->get_handle('de');
    # All ->maketext calls below will become ->maketext_fuzzy instead
    $lh->override_maketext(1);
    # This prints "Exact match"
    print $lh->maketext('0 camels were released.');
    # "1 Kamel wurde freigegeben." -- quant() gets 1
    print $lh->maketext('1 camel was released.');
    # "2 Kamele wurden freigegeben." -- quant() gets 2
    print $lh->maketext('2 camels were released.');
    # "3 Kamele wurden freigegeben." -- parameters are ignored
    print $lh->maketext('3 released.');
    # "4 Kamele wurden freigegeben." -- normal usage
    print $lh->maketext('[*,_1,camel was,camels were] released.', 4);
    # "!Perl ist frei!" -- matches the broader one
    # Note that the sequence ([_2] before [_1]) is preserved
    print $lh->maketext('Perl released!');
```

## DESCRIPTION

This module is a subclass of `"Locale::Maketext"`, with additional support for localizing messages that already contains interpolated variables.

This is most useful when the messages are returned by external sources -- for example, to match `"dir: command not found"` against `"[_1]: command not found"`.

Of course, this module is also useful if you're simply too lazy to use the

```
    $lh->maketext("[quant,_1,file,files] deleted.", $count);
```

syntax, but wish to write

```
    $lh->maketext_fuzzy("$count files deleted");
```

instead, and have the correct plural form figured out automatically.

If `"maketext_fuzzy"` seems too long to type for you, this module also provides a `"override_maketext"` method to turn *all* `"maketext"` calls into `"maketext_fuzzy"` calls.

## METHODS

### $lh-\>maketext\_fuzzy(*key*\[, *parameters...*\]);

That method takes exactly the same arguments as the `"maketext"` method of `"Locale::Maketext"`.

If *key* is found in lexicons, it is applied in the same way as `"maketext"`.  Otherwise, it looks at all lexicon entries that could possibly yield *key*, by turning `"[...]"` sequences into `"(.*?)"` and match the resulting regular expression against *key*.

Once it finds all candidate entries, the longest one replaces the *key* for the real `"maketext"` call.  Variables matched by its bracket sequences (`$1`, `$2`...) are placed before *parameters*; the order of variables in the matched entry are correctly preserved.

For example, if the matched entry in `%Lexicon` is `"Test [_1]"`, this call:

```
    $fh->maketext_fuzzy("Test string", "param");
```

is equivalent to this:

```
    $fh->maketext("Test [_1]", "string", "param");
```

However, most of the time you won't need to supply *parameters* to a `"maketext_fuzzy"` call, since all parameters are already interpolated into the string.

### $lh-\>override\_maketext(\[*flag*\]);

If *flag* is true, this accessor method turns `"$lh->maketext"` into an alias for `"$lh->maketext_fuzzy"`, so all consecutive `"maketext"` calls in the `$lh`'s packages are automatically fuzzy. A false *flag* restores the original behaviour.  If the flag is not specified, returns the current status of override; the default is 0 (no overriding).

Note that this call only modifies the symbol table of the *language* *class* that `$lh` belongs to, so other languages are not affected. If you want to override all language handles in a certain application, try this:

```
    MyApp::L10N->override_maketext(1);
```

## CAVEATS

- •

  The "longer is better" heuristic to determine the best match is reasonably good, but could certainly be improved.

- •

  Currently, `"[quant,_1,file] deleted"` won't match `"3 files deleted"`; you'll have to write `"[quant,_1,file,files] deleted"` instead, or simply use `"[_1] file deleted"` as the lexicon key and put the correct plural form handling into the corresponding value.

- •

  When used in combination with `"Locale::Maketext::Lexicon"`'s `"Tie"` backend, all keys would be iterated over each time a fuzzy match is performed, and may cause serious speed penalty.  Patches welcome.

## SEE ALSO

Locale::Maketext, Locale::Maketext::Lexicon

## HISTORY

This particular module was written to facilitate an *auto-extraction* layer for Slashcode's *Template Toolkit* provider, based on `"HTML::Parser"` and `"Template::Parser"`.  It would work like this:

```
    Input | <B>from the [% story.dept %] dept.</B>
    Output| <B>[%|loc( story.dept )%]from the [_1] dept.[%END%]</B>
```

Now, this layer suffers from the same linguistic problems as an ordinary `"Msgcat"` or `"Gettext"` framework does -- what if we want to make ordinals from `"[% story.dept %]"` (i.e. `"from the 3rd dept."`), or expand the `"dept."` to `"department"` / `"departments"`?

The same problem occurred in RT's web interface, where it had to localize messages returned by external modules, which may already contain interpolated variables, e.g. `"Successfully deleted 7` `ticket(s) in 'c:\temp'."`.

Since I didn't have the time to refactor `"DBI"` and `"DBI::SearchBuilder"`, I devised a `"loc_match"` method to pre-process their messages into one of the *candidate strings*, then applied the matched string to `"maketext"`.

Afterwards, I realized that instead of preparing a set of candidate strings, I could actually match against the original *lexicon file* (i.e. PO files via `"Locale::Maketext::Lexicon"`).  This is how `"Locale::Maketext::Fuzzy"` was born.

## AUTHORS

Audrey Tang \<cpan@audreyt.org\>

## CC0 1.0 Universal

To the extent possible under law, 唐鳳 has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Locale-Maketext-Fuzzy.

This work is published from Taiwan.

\<http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0\>

## POD ERRORS

Hey! **The above document had some coding errors, which are explained below:**

- Around line 318:

  Non-ASCII character seen before =encoding in '唐鳳'. Assuming UTF-8