This comes from tc39 work. > I don't know if this is a CLDR issue or if the spec needs to be changed to account for the case when the output may not contain an approximately sign.
> FormatApproximately requires that exactly one "approximatelySign" number part is present, but it may not be present for certain locales.
My take is: The are a few languages where digits are suppressed in some plural forms, because it wouldn't be grammatical with them. That is, the noun in that form already carries the information.
The closest analogy I can think of would be something like the following in English:
works: 2 books (has digit)
doesn’t work: No books (would be wrong to write "0 no books")
An example of where this causes a problem is in Arabic. Here is the relevant data.
There isn't a digit in the one or two pattern to apply the four patterns to.
We will have to investigate how the languages like that such as Arabic deal with the approximation sign and similar patterns, when there isn't a number to hang it on. It could be simple, and apply to the whole noun, such as the following:
~متر
Or it might be more complicated and require more structure.
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Michelle Perham
February 21, 2025 at 2:21 AM
This issue has been bulk punted to 48 and will be re-triaged. If you feel strongly it should be fixed, please advocate for it.
Annemarie Apple 🍎
April 4, 2024 at 5:20 AM
Bulk moving all issues to the next version which aren't in component type: brs, charts, docs, docs-spec
Annemarie Apple 🍎
October 30, 2023 at 5:44 PM
Bulk moving all issues that are not in review and not BRS to the next release.
Annemarie Apple 🍎
March 21, 2023 at 6:12 PM
Bulk moving all issues that are not docs, docs-spec, charts, or BRS to the next release.
Resetting priority of all issues with priority 'major' to 'major-stretch'
Shane Carr
July 21, 2021 at 7:25 AM
Note that ICU uses the approximately symbol rather than the approximately pattern in most cases.
This comes from tc39 work.
> I don't know if this is a CLDR issue or if the spec needs to be changed to account for the case when the output may not contain an approximately sign.
> FormatApproximately requires that exactly one "approximatelySign" number part is present, but it may not be present for certain locales.
My take is: The are a few languages where digits are suppressed in some plural forms, because it wouldn't be grammatical with them. That is, the noun in that form already carries the information.
The closest analogy I can think of would be something like the following in English:
works: 2 books (has digit)
doesn’t work: No books (would be wrong to write "0 no books")
An example of where this causes a problem is in Arabic. Here is the relevant data.
<pattern type="approximately">~{0}</pattern>
<pattern type="atLeast">+{0}</pattern>
<pattern type="atMost">≤{0}</pattern>
<pattern type="range">{0}–{1}</pattern>
<unitPattern count="zero">{0} متر</unitPattern>
<unitPattern count="one">متر</unitPattern>
<unitPattern count="two">متران</unitPattern>
…
There isn't a digit in the one or two pattern to apply the four patterns to.
We will have to investigate how the languages like that such as Arabic deal with the approximation sign and similar patterns, when there isn't a number to hang it on. It could be simple, and apply to the whole noun, such as the following:
~متر
Or it might be more complicated and require more structure.