Humanizer — String, Date & Number Manipulation for .NET

Introduction

Humanizer is a .NET library that turns machine-oriented data into human-readable text. Whether you need to display relative timestamps, pluralize nouns, truncate strings, or convert enums to friendly labels, Humanizer provides a consistent fluent API that keeps your UI code clean and your output natural.

What Humanizer Does

• Converts PascalCase, camelCase, underscore_case, and kebab-case strings to sentence or title case
• Displays relative dates and times (e.g., "2 days ago", "in 3 months")
• Pluralizes and singularizes English nouns with override support
• Converts numbers to ordinal strings, words, and Roman numerals
• Truncates strings with configurable strategies (fixed length, word boundary, character)

Architecture Overview

Humanizer is a pure .NET library distributed as a single NuGet package. It targets .NET Standard 2.0 and above, which means it runs on .NET Framework 4.7+, .NET Core, .NET 5-9, Xamarin, and Unity. Localization resources for 40+ languages are bundled as satellite assemblies, and the fluent extension-method API means zero configuration for most use cases.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Install via NuGet: dotnet add package Humanizer
• No external dependencies or services required
• Localization is automatic based on Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture
• Override pluralization rules by registering custom vocabularies
• Extend with your own IStringTransformer or ITruncator implementations

Key Features

• Fluent extension methods on string, DateTime, TimeSpan, int, and enum
• 40+ localized language packs for date and number humanization
• Multiple truncation strategies: fixed length, word, character
• ByteSize helper for human-readable file sizes (e.g., "1.2 GB")
• Metric prefix support for scientific and engineering notation

Comparison with Similar Tools

• String.Format / interpolation — built-in but no relative dates, pluralization, or casing transforms
• NodaTime — advanced date/time modeling but no humanization layer
• Pluralize.NET — pluralization only; Humanizer covers strings, dates, numbers too
• FluentDateTime — date arithmetic helpers; does not humanize output
• SmartFormat.NET — template-based formatting; Humanizer is more extension-method driven

FAQ

Q: Does Humanizer support my language? A: Humanizer ships with localized resources for 40+ languages including Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and many more.

Q: Can I use Humanizer in Blazor or MAUI apps? A: Yes. Humanizer targets .NET Standard 2.0, so it works in Blazor, MAUI, WPF, WinForms, and any .NET runtime.

Q: How do I add custom pluralization rules? A: Call Vocabularies.Default.AddIrregular("person", "people") or AddUncountable("fish") at startup.

Q: Is Humanizer thread-safe? A: Yes. All extension methods are pure functions. Culture is read from the current thread at call time.

Sources

• https://github.com/Humanizr/Humanizer
• https://humanizr.net