Smart Strings

Smart Strings provide dynamic text formatting with variables, pluralization, gender agreement, and locale-aware formatting.

Pattern	Example	Result
Positional	Hello {0}!	Hello World!
Named	Hello {name}!	Hello John!

Positional Arguments:

// Template: "{0} scored {1} points"
string result = Localization.Get("score.message", "John", 100);
// Result: "John scored 100 points"

Named Arguments (via Dictionary):

var args = new Dictionary<string, object>
{
    { "player", "John" },
    { "score", 100 }
};
string result = SmartStringParser.Parse("{player} scored {score} points", args);
// Result: "John scored 100 points"

Syntax: {variable:plural:category=text|category=text}

Use # as placeholder for the number.

// Template: "{0:plural:one=# item|other=# items}"

SmartStringParser.Parse("{0:plural:one=# item|other=# items}", 1);
// Result: "1 item"

SmartStringParser.Parse("{0:plural:one=# item|other=# items}", 5);
// Result: "5 items"

CLDR Plural Categories:

Category	Used By
zero	Arabic, Latvian, Welsh
one	English, German, Spanish, French
two	Arabic, Hebrew, Slovenian
few	Russian, Czech, Polish
many	Russian, Polish, Arabic
other	All languages (required fallback)

Complex Example (Russian):

{0:plural:one=# яблоко|few=# яблока|many=# яблок|other=# яблока}

Syntax: {variable:male=text|female=text|other=text}

// Template: "{0:male=He|female=She|other=They} logged in"

SmartStringParser.Parse("{0:male=He|female=She|other=They} logged in", "female");
// Result: "She logged in"

Syntax: {variable:true=text|false=text}

// Template: "Status: {0:true=Online|false=Offline}"

SmartStringParser.Parse("Status: {0:true=Online|false=Offline}", true);
// Result: "Status: Online"

Uses .NET format specifiers with locale-aware formatting.

Format	Example	Result (en-US)	Result (de-DE)
N0	{0:N0}	1,234,567	1.234.567
N2	{0:N2}	1,234.56	1.234,56
C	{0:C}	$19.99	19,99 €
P	{0:P}	85.50%	85,50 %

// Template: "Score: {0:N0}"
SmartStringParser.Parse("Score: {0:N0}", 1234567);
// Result: "Score: 1,234,567"

// Template: "Price: {0:C}"
SmartStringParser.Parse("Price: {0:C}", 19.99m);
// Result: "Price: $19.99" (or locale equivalent)

Format	Description	Example (en-US)
d	Short date	1/15/2025
D	Long date	Wednesday, January 15, 2025

// Template: "Date: {0:d}"
SmartStringParser.Parse("Date: {0:d}", DateTime.Now);
// Result: "Date: 1/15/2025"

Validate templates before deployment:

bool isValid = SmartStringParser.Validate(template, out string[] errors);
if (!isValid)
{
    foreach (var error in errors)
    {
        Debug.LogError($"Template error: {error}");
    }
}

Get all variable names from a template:

string[] vars = SmartStringParser.ExtractVariables("{player} scored {score} points");
// Returns: ["player", "score"]

---