What it is
Humanizer converts values into human-readable forms — relative dates, pluralisation, number words, byte sizes and cased strings.
Extension methods on primitives and strings. Most support localisation through the current culture.
Installation
dotnet add package HumanizerGetting started
The smallest useful thing you can do with it, and what each part means.
csharp
DateTime.UtcNow.AddHours(-2).Humanize(); // "2 hours ago"
TimeSpan.FromDays(400).Humanize(2); // "1 year, 1 month"
"book".ToQuantity(1); // "1 book"
"book".ToQuantity(5); // "5 books"
"person".Pluralize(); // "people" (irregulars handled)
(1024L * 1024 * 3).Bytes().Humanize("#.##"); // "3 MB"
42.ToWords(); // "forty-two"
3.ToOrdinalWords(); // "third"
"PascalCaseString".Humanize(); // "Pascal case string"
"some_property_name".Pascalize(); // "SomePropertyName"Advanced usage
Where the library earns its place over a simpler alternative.
csharp
using (CultureInfo.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("de"))
{
DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(-1).Humanize(); // "vor einem Tag"
}
public enum OrderStatus
{
[Description("Awaiting payment")] AwaitingPayment,
PartiallyShipped,
}
OrderStatus.AwaitingPayment.Humanize(); // "Awaiting payment" (attribute)
OrderStatus.PartiallyShipped.Humanize(); // "Partially shipped" (inferred)Errors and fixes
The failures you are most likely to hit, and what actually resolves them.
- Output is in the wrong language
- It follows CurrentUICulture. Set it per request from the Accept-Language header.
- A domain term pluralises incorrectly
- Register the exception with Vocabularies.Default.AddIrregular or AddUncountable at startup.
Best practices
- Use ToQuantity rather than concatenating a count with a manually pluralised noun.
- Set the culture explicitly when output must match the user's locale, not the server's.
- Use it for display only; never parse humanised output back into a value.
- Prefer the Description attribute over a switch for enum display names.
Background
Why it exists, and what it was reacting to.
Humanizer collects the small formatting utilities every application reimplements badly: "2 hours ago", "3 items", "1.4 MB". Doing them correctly across locales is more involved than it looks.