1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
|
# Unicode Text Segmentation for Go
[](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg)
[](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/rivo/uniseg)
This Go package implements Unicode Text Segmentation according to [Unicode Standard Annex #29](https://unicode.org/reports/tr29/), Unicode Line Breaking according to [Unicode Standard Annex #14](https://unicode.org/reports/tr14/) (Unicode version 15.0.0), and monospace font string width calculation similar to [wcwidth](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/wcwidth.3.html).
## Background
### Grapheme Clusters
In Go, [strings are read-only slices of bytes](https://go.dev/blog/strings). They can be turned into Unicode code points using the `for` loop or by casting: `[]rune(str)`. However, multiple code points may be combined into one user-perceived character or what the Unicode specification calls "grapheme cluster". Here are some examples:
|String|Bytes (UTF-8)|Code points (runes)|Grapheme clusters|
|-|-|-|-|
|Käse|6 bytes: `4b 61 cc 88 73 65`|5 code points: `4b 61 308 73 65`|4 clusters: `[4b],[61 308],[73],[65]`|
|🏳️🌈|14 bytes: `f0 9f 8f b3 ef b8 8f e2 80 8d f0 9f 8c 88`|4 code points: `1f3f3 fe0f 200d 1f308`|1 cluster: `[1f3f3 fe0f 200d 1f308]`|
|🇩🇪|8 bytes: `f0 9f 87 a9 f0 9f 87 aa`|2 code points: `1f1e9 1f1ea`|1 cluster: `[1f1e9 1f1ea]`|
This package provides tools to iterate over these grapheme clusters. This may be used to determine the number of user-perceived characters, to split strings in their intended places, or to extract individual characters which form a unit.
### Word Boundaries
Word boundaries are used in a number of different contexts. The most familiar ones are selection (double-click mouse selection), cursor movement ("move to next word" control-arrow keys), and the dialog option "Whole Word Search" for search and replace. They are also used in database queries, to determine whether elements are within a certain number of words of one another. Searching may also use word boundaries in determining matching items. This package provides tools to determine word boundaries within strings.
### Sentence Boundaries
Sentence boundaries are often used for triple-click or some other method of selecting or iterating through blocks of text that are larger than single words. They are also used to determine whether words occur within the same sentence in database queries. This package provides tools to determine sentence boundaries within strings.
### Line Breaking
Line breaking, also known as word wrapping, is the process of breaking a section of text into lines such that it will fit in the available width of a page, window or other display area. This package provides tools to determine where a string may or may not be broken and where it must be broken (for example after newline characters).
### Monospace Width
Most terminals or text displays / text editors using a monospace font (for example source code editors) use a fixed width for each character. Some characters such as emojis or characters found in Asian and other languages may take up more than one character cell. This package provides tools to determine the number of cells a string will take up when displayed in a monospace font. See [here](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#hdr-Monospace_Width) for more information.
## Installation
```bash
go get github.com/rivo/uniseg
```
## Examples
### Counting Characters in a String
```go
n := uniseg.GraphemeClusterCount("🇩🇪🏳️🌈")
fmt.Println(n)
// 2
```
### Calculating the Monospace String Width
```go
width := uniseg.StringWidth("🇩🇪🏳️🌈!")
fmt.Println(width)
// 5
```
### Using the [`Graphemes`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#Graphemes) Class
This is the most convenient method of iterating over grapheme clusters:
```go
gr := uniseg.NewGraphemes("👍🏼!")
for gr.Next() {
fmt.Printf("%x ", gr.Runes())
}
// [1f44d 1f3fc] [21]
```
### Using the [`Step`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#Step) or [`StepString`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#StepString) Function
This avoids allocating a new `Graphemes` object but it requires the handling of states and boundaries:
```go
str := "🇩🇪🏳️🌈"
state := -1
var c string
for len(str) > 0 {
c, str, _, state = uniseg.StepString(str, state)
fmt.Printf("%x ", []rune(c))
}
// [1f1e9 1f1ea] [1f3f3 fe0f 200d 1f308]
```
### Advanced Examples
The [`Graphemes`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#Graphemes) class offers the most convenient way to access all functionality of this package. But in some cases, it may be better to use the specialized functions directly. For example, if you're only interested in word segmentation, use [`FirstWord`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#FirstWord) or [`FirstWordInString`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#FirstWordInString):
```go
str := "Hello, world!"
state := -1
var c string
for len(str) > 0 {
c, str, state = uniseg.FirstWordInString(str, state)
fmt.Printf("(%s)\n", c)
}
// (Hello)
// (,)
// ( )
// (world)
// (!)
```
Similarly, use
- [`FirstGraphemeCluster`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#FirstGraphemeCluster) or [`FirstGraphemeClusterInString`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#FirstGraphemeClusterInString) for grapheme cluster determination only,
- [`FirstSentence`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#FirstSentence) or [`FirstSentenceInString`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#FirstSentenceInString) for sentence segmentation only, and
- [`FirstLineSegment`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#FirstLineSegment) or [`FirstLineSegmentInString`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#FirstLineSegmentInString) for line breaking / word wrapping (although using [`Step`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#Step) or [`StepString`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#StepString) is preferred as it will observe grapheme cluster boundaries).
If you're only interested in the width of characters, use [`FirstGraphemeCluster`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#FirstGraphemeCluster) or [`FirstGraphemeClusterInString`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#FirstGraphemeClusterInString). It is much faster than using [`Step`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#Step), [`StepString`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#StepString), or the [`Graphemes`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#Graphemes) class because it does not include the logic for word / sentence / line boundaries.
Finally, if you need to reverse a string while preserving grapheme clusters, use [`ReverseString`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#ReverseString):
```go
fmt.Println(uniseg.ReverseString("🇩🇪🏳️🌈"))
// 🏳️🌈🇩🇪
```
## Documentation
Refer to https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg for the package's documentation.
## Dependencies
This package does not depend on any packages outside the standard library.
## Sponsor this Project
[Become a Sponsor on GitHub](https://github.com/sponsors/rivo?metadata_source=uniseg_readme) to support this project!
## Your Feedback
Add your issue here on GitHub, preferably before submitting any PR's. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.
|
