1 | # Graphemer: Unicode Character Splitter 🪓
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2 |
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3 | ## Introduction
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4 |
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5 | This library continues the work of [Grapheme Splitter](https://github.com/orling/grapheme-splitter) and supports the following unicode versions:
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6 |
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7 | - Unicode 15 and below `[v1.4.0]`
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8 | - Unicode 14 and below `[v1.3.0]`
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9 | - Unicode 13 and below `[v1.1.0]`
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10 | - Unicode 11 and below `[v1.0.0]` (Unicode 10 supported by `grapheme-splitter`)
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11 |
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12 | In JavaScript there is not always a one-to-one relationship between string characters and what a user would call a separate visual "letter". Some symbols are represented by several characters. This can cause issues when splitting strings and inadvertently cutting a multi-char letter in half, or when you need the actual number of letters in a string.
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13 |
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14 | For example, emoji characters like "🌷","🎁","💩","😜" and "👍" are represented by two JavaScript characters each (high surrogate and low surrogate). That is,
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15 |
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16 | ```javascript
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17 | '🌷'.length == 2;
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18 | ```
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19 |
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20 | The combined emoji are even longer:
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21 |
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22 | ```javascript
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23 | '🏳️🌈'.length == 6;
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24 | ```
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25 |
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26 | What's more, some languages often include combining marks - characters that are used to modify the letters before them. Common examples are the German letter ü and the Spanish letter ñ. Sometimes they can be represented alternatively both as a single character and as a letter + combining mark, with both forms equally valid:
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27 |
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28 | ```javascript
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29 | var two = 'ñ'; // unnormalized two-char n+◌̃, i.e. "\u006E\u0303";
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30 | var one = 'ñ'; // normalized single-char, i.e. "\u00F1"
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31 |
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32 | console.log(one != two); // prints 'true'
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33 | ```
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34 |
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35 | Unicode normalization, as performed by the popular punycode.js library or ECMAScript 6's String.normalize, can **sometimes** fix those differences and turn two-char sequences into single characters. But it is **not** enough in all cases. Some languages like Hindi make extensive use of combining marks on their letters, that have no dedicated single-codepoint Unicode sequences, due to the sheer number of possible combinations.
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36 | For example, the Hindi word "अनुच्छेद" is comprised of 5 letters and 3 combining marks:
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37 |
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38 | अ + न + ु + च + ् + छ + े + द
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39 |
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40 | which is in fact just 5 user-perceived letters:
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41 |
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42 | अ + नु + च् + छे + द
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43 |
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44 | and which Unicode normalization would not combine properly.
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45 | There are also the unusual letter+combining mark combinations which have no dedicated Unicode codepoint. The string Z͑ͫ̓ͪ̂ͫ̽͏̴̙̤̞͉͚̯̞̠͍A̴̵̜̰͔ͫ͗͢L̠ͨͧͩ͘G̴̻͈͍͔̹̑͗̎̅͛́Ǫ̵̹̻̝̳͂̌̌͘ obviously has 5 separate letters, but is in fact comprised of 58 JavaScript characters, most of which are combining marks.
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46 |
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47 | Enter the `graphemer` library. It can be used to properly split JavaScript strings into what a human user would call separate letters (or "extended grapheme clusters" in Unicode terminology), no matter what their internal representation is. It is an implementation on the [Default Grapheme Cluster Boundary](http://unicode.org/reports/tr29/#Default_Grapheme_Cluster_Table) of [UAX #29](http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr29/).
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48 |
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49 | ## Installation
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50 |
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51 | Install `graphemer` using the NPM command below:
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52 |
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53 | ```
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54 | $ npm i graphemer
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55 | ```
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56 |
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57 | ## Usage
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58 |
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59 | If you're using [Typescript](https://www.typescriptlang.org/) or a compiler like [Babel](https://babeljs.io/) (or something like Create React App) things are pretty simple; just import, initialize and use!
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60 |
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61 | ```javascript
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62 | import Graphemer from 'graphemer';
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63 |
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64 | const splitter = new Graphemer();
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65 |
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66 | // split the string to an array of grapheme clusters (one string each)
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67 | const graphemes = splitter.splitGraphemes(string);
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68 |
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69 | // iterate the string to an iterable iterator of grapheme clusters (one string each)
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70 | const graphemeIterator = splitter.iterateGraphemes(string);
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71 |
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72 | // or do this if you just need their number
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73 | const graphemeCount = splitter.countGraphemes(string);
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74 | ```
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75 |
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76 | If you're using vanilla Node you can use the `require()` method.
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77 |
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78 | ```javascript
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79 | const Graphemer = require('graphemer').default;
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80 |
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81 | const splitter = new Graphemer();
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82 |
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83 | const graphemes = splitter.splitGraphemes(string);
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84 | ```
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85 |
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86 | ## Examples
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87 |
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88 | ```javascript
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89 | import Graphemer from 'graphemer';
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90 |
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91 | const splitter = new Graphemer();
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92 |
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93 | // plain latin alphabet - nothing spectacular
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94 | splitter.splitGraphemes('abcd'); // returns ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
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95 |
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96 | // two-char emojis and six-char combined emoji
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97 | splitter.splitGraphemes('🌷🎁💩😜👍🏳️🌈'); // returns ["🌷","🎁","💩","😜","👍","🏳️🌈"]
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98 |
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99 | // diacritics as combining marks, 10 JavaScript chars
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100 | splitter.splitGraphemes('Ĺo͂řȩm̅'); // returns ["Ĺ","o͂","ř","ȩ","m̅"]
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101 |
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102 | // individual Korean characters (Jamo), 4 JavaScript chars
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103 | splitter.splitGraphemes('뎌쉐'); // returns ["뎌","쉐"]
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104 |
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105 | // Hindi text with combining marks, 8 JavaScript chars
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106 | splitter.splitGraphemes('अनुच्छेद'); // returns ["अ","नु","च्","छे","द"]
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107 |
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108 | // demonic multiple combining marks, 75 JavaScript chars
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109 | splitter.splitGraphemes('Z͑ͫ̓ͪ̂ͫ̽͏̴̙̤̞͉͚̯̞̠͍A̴̵̜̰͔ͫ͗͢L̠ͨͧͩ͘G̴̻͈͍͔̹̑͗̎̅͛́Ǫ̵̹̻̝̳͂̌̌͘!͖̬̰̙̗̿̋ͥͥ̂ͣ̐́́͜͞'); // returns ["Z͑ͫ̓ͪ̂ͫ̽͏̴̙̤̞͉͚̯̞̠͍","A̴̵̜̰͔ͫ͗͢","L̠ͨͧͩ͘","G̴̻͈͍͔̹̑͗̎̅͛́","Ǫ̵̹̻̝̳͂̌̌͘","!͖̬̰̙̗̿̋ͥͥ̂ͣ̐́́͜͞"]
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110 | ```
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111 |
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112 | ## TypeScript
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113 |
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114 | Graphemer is built with TypeScript and, of course, includes type declarations.
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115 |
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116 | ```javascript
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117 | import Graphemer from 'graphemer';
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118 |
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119 | const splitter = new Graphemer();
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120 |
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121 | const split: string[] = splitter.splitGraphemes('Z͑ͫ̓ͪ̂ͫ̽͏̴̙̤̞͉͚̯̞̠͍A̴̵̜̰͔ͫ͗͢L̠ͨͧͩ͘G̴̻͈͍͔̹̑͗̎̅͛́Ǫ̵̹̻̝̳͂̌̌͘!͖̬̰̙̗̿̋ͥͥ̂ͣ̐́́͜͞');
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122 | ```
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123 |
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124 | ## Contributing
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125 |
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126 | See [Contribution Guide](./CONTRIBUTING.md).
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127 |
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128 | ## Acknowledgements
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129 |
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130 | This library is a fork of the incredible work done by Orlin Georgiev and Huáng Jùnliàng at https://github.com/orling/grapheme-splitter.
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131 |
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132 | The original library was heavily influenced by Devon Govett's excellent [grapheme-breaker](https://github.com/devongovett/grapheme-breaker) CoffeeScript library.
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