Dates and numbers

A screen in English can still write dates and numbers the European way, such as 30/09/2026 and 1.234,56. gottext calls that format the format locale. It is separate from the reader’s language, which startLocale picks.

Remember the format locale

Tell gottext the format locale once, usually from a setting your server sends:

import { rememberFormatLocale } from '@gopherium/gottext'

rememberFormatLocale('es-ES')

Until you do, every helper below writes in the reader’s language.

The helpers

Helper	Writes	Example
formatDate(at)	a date, day and month in two digits	30/09/2026
formatTime(at)	hours and minutes, on the format locale’s clock	09:05
formatNumber(value)	a number, its thousands always grouped	1.234,56
formatMoney(amount, 'EUR')	an amount of a currency	1.234,56 €
formatWeekday(at)	the name of the day, in the reader’s language	Wednesday
formatList(items)	words joined as a list, in the reader’s language	Height, Weight

The examples use the es-ES format locale and an English reader. The clock follows the format locale too, so en-US writes 09:05 AM.

at is a Date or the text a server stored. An empty string writes nothing. A bare calendar day, such as a due date stored as 2026-09-30, writes that day for every reader, wherever they are. A full timestamp, such as 2026-09-01T03:00:00Z, is a moment, so it shows in the reader’s own time zone. For a reader in Los Angeles that one is still August 31.

formatDate takes the Intl.DateTimeFormatOptions as a second argument, such as { month: 'long' }. dateStyle and the single fields work, and timeStyle throws. To show a time, call formatTime. formatNumber takes the Intl.NumberFormatOptions, such as { maximumFractionDigits: 2 }.

Wait for the setting

If your screens draw before the setting arrives, the first dates show in the wrong format. FormatLocaleGate holds them back:

import { FormatLocaleGate } from '@gopherium/gottext/react'

<FormatLocaleGate locale={settings?.formatLocale} failed={isError} loading={<Spinner />}>
  <App />
</FormatLocaleGate>

It shows loading until locale holds a value. Then it remembers that locale and shows your screens. When reading the settings failed, it shows your screens anyway, in the reader’s language. This entry needs react installed.

Counts in messages

A message such as %d posts writes the bare number, so the count never follows the format locale. Write %s and pass the count through formatNumber:

sprintf(_n('%s post', '%s posts', count, 'myapp'), formatNumber(count))

The unformatted check names every message of your template that still writes a number through %d, %i, %u, %e, %f or %g, upper case %E and %G and a length such as %ld included:

import { unformatted } from '@gopherium/gottext/build'

expect(unformatted(readFileSync('languages/myapp.pot', 'utf8'))).toEqual([])