ICU expression select not detecting empty value

Question

I am translating my app using i18n angular 7, and I'm having problems with a ICU expression select. The issue is that I want the condition to recognize and empty value like this: animal: string

<div i18n="@@example> 
    { animal, select, EMPTY { Cat } dog { Dog } other { Pig } }
</div>

I have tried using

{ animal, select, undefined { Cat } dog { Dog } other { Pig } }

but it didn't work

when animal is:

(empty string, null or undefined) -> translate Cat

dog -> translate Dog

other -> translate Pig

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 04 '19 at 21:10

Unfortunately it seems that the key for each translation case of the select is taken as a string, not an expression, so your undefined there is taken as "undefined", and EMPTY as "EMPTY".

As a workaround you can evaluate animal + "" as your select condition. undefined + "" === "undefined", and it will match "undefined" in your select cases:

{ animal + "", select, undefined { Cat } dog { Dog } other { Pig } }

That said, you could convert undefined to any string value you think won't actually appear in the animal variable for the same result:

{ animal === undefined? "geranium" : animal , select, geranium { Cat } dog { Dog } other { Pig } }

ICU expression *select* not detecting empty value

1 Answers1

ICU expression select not detecting empty value