1Unicode::UCD(3pm) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Unicode::UCD(3pm)
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6 Unicode::UCD - Unicode character database
7
9 use Unicode::UCD 'charinfo';
10 my $charinfo = charinfo($codepoint);
11 use Unicode::UCD 'charblock';
13 my $charblock = charblock($codepoint);
14 use Unicode::UCD 'charscript';
16 my $charscript = charscript($codepoint);
17 use Unicode::UCD 'charblocks';
19 my $charblocks = charblocks();
20 use Unicode::UCD 'charscripts';
22 my %charscripts = charscripts();
23 use Unicode::UCD qw(charscript charinrange);
25 my $range = charscript($script);
26 print "looks like $script\n" if charinrange($range, $codepoint);
27 use Unicode::UCD 'compexcl';
29 my $compexcl = compexcl($codepoint);
30 use Unicode::UCD 'namedseq';
32 my $namedseq = namedseq($named_sequence_name);
33 my $unicode_version = Unicode::UCD::UnicodeVersion();
35
37 The Unicode::UCD module offers a simple interface to the Unicode Char‐
38 acter Database.
39 charinfo
41 use Unicode::UCD 'charinfo';
43 my $charinfo = charinfo(0x41);
45 charinfo() returns a reference to a hash that has the following fields
47 as defined by the Unicode standard:
48 key
50 code code point with at least four hexdigits
52 name name of the character IN UPPER CASE
53 category general category of the character
54 combining classes used in the Canonical Ordering Algorithm
55 bidi bidirectional category
56 decomposition character decomposition mapping
57 decimal if decimal digit this is the integer numeric value
58 digit if digit this is the numeric value
59 numeric if numeric is the integer or rational numeric value
60 mirrored if mirrored in bidirectional text
61 unicode10 Unicode 1.0 name if existed and different
62 comment ISO 10646 comment field
63 upper uppercase equivalent mapping
64 lower lowercase equivalent mapping
65 title titlecase equivalent mapping
66 block block the character belongs to (used in \p{In...})
68 script script the character belongs to
69 If no match is found, a reference to an empty hash is returned.
71 The "block" property is the same as returned by charinfo(). It is not
73 defined in the Unicode Character Database proper (Chapter 4 of the Uni‐
74 code 3.0 Standard, aka TUS3) but instead in an auxiliary database
75 (Chapter 14 of TUS3). Similarly for the "script" property.
76 Note that you cannot do (de)composition and casing based solely on the
78 above "decomposition" and "lower", "upper", "title", properties, you
79 will need also the compexcl(), casefold(), and casespec() functions.
80 charblock
82 use Unicode::UCD 'charblock';
84 my $charblock = charblock(0x41);
86 my $charblock = charblock(1234);
87 my $charblock = charblock("0x263a");
88 my $charblock = charblock("U+263a");
89 my $range = charblock('Armenian');
91 With a code point argument charblock() returns the block the character
93 belongs to, e.g. "Basic Latin". Note that not all the character posi‐
94 tions within all blocks are defined.
95 See also "Blocks versus Scripts".
97 If supplied with an argument that can't be a code point, charblock()
99 tries to do the opposite and interpret the argument as a character
100 block. The return value is a range: an anonymous list of lists that
101 contain start-of-range, end-of-range code point pairs. You can test
102 whether a code point is in a range using the "charinrange" function. If
103 the argument is not a known character block, "undef" is returned.
104 charscript
106 use Unicode::UCD 'charscript';
108 my $charscript = charscript(0x41);
110 my $charscript = charscript(1234);
111 my $charscript = charscript("U+263a");
112 my $range = charscript('Thai');
114 With a code point argument charscript() returns the script the charac‐
116 ter belongs to, e.g. "Latin", "Greek", "Han".
117 See also "Blocks versus Scripts".
119 If supplied with an argument that can't be a code point, charscript()
121 tries to do the opposite and interpret the argument as a character
122 script. The return value is a range: an anonymous list of lists that
123 contain start-of-range, end-of-range code point pairs. You can test
124 whether a code point is in a range using the "charinrange" function. If
125 the argument is not a known character script, "undef" is returned.
126 charblocks
128 use Unicode::UCD 'charblocks';
130 my $charblocks = charblocks();
132 charblocks() returns a reference to a hash with the known block names
134 as the keys, and the code point ranges (see "charblock") as the values.
135 See also "Blocks versus Scripts".
137 charscripts
139 use Unicode::UCD 'charscripts';
141 my %charscripts = charscripts();
143 charscripts() returns a hash with the known script names as the keys,
145 and the code point ranges (see "charscript") as the values.
146 See also "Blocks versus Scripts".
148 Blocks versus Scripts
150 The difference between a block and a script is that scripts are closer
152 to the linguistic notion of a set of characters required to present
153 languages, while block is more of an artifact of the Unicode character
154 numbering and separation into blocks of (mostly) 256 characters.
155 For example the Latin script is spread over several blocks, such as
157 "Basic Latin", "Latin 1 Supplement", "Latin Extended-A", and "Latin
158 Extended-B". On the other hand, the Latin script does not contain all
159 the characters of the "Basic Latin" block (also known as the ASCII): it
160 includes only the letters, and not, for example, the digits or the
161 punctuation.
162 For blocks see http://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/Blocks.txt
164 For scripts see UTR #24: http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr24/
166 Matching Scripts and Blocks
168 Scripts are matched with the regular-expression construct "\p{...}"
170 (e.g. "\p{Tibetan}" matches characters of the Tibetan script), while
171 "\p{In...}" is used for blocks (e.g. "\p{InTibetan}" matches any of the
172 256 code points in the Tibetan block).
173 Code Point Arguments
175 A code point argument is either a decimal or a hexadecimal scalar des‐
177 ignating a Unicode character, or "U+" followed by hexadecimals desig‐
178 nating a Unicode character. In other words, if you want a code point
179 to be interpreted as a hexadecimal number, you must prefix it with
180 either "0x" or "U+", because a string like e.g. 123 will be interpreted
181 as a decimal code point. Also note that Unicode is not limited to 16
182 bits (the number of Unicode characters is open-ended, in theory unlim‐
183 ited): you may have more than 4 hexdigits.
184 charinrange
186 In addition to using the "\p{In...}" and "\P{In...}" constructs, you
188 can also test whether a code point is in the range as returned by
189 "charblock" and "charscript" or as the values of the hash returned by
190 "charblocks" and "charscripts" by using charinrange():
191 use Unicode::UCD qw(charscript charinrange);
193 $range = charscript('Hiragana');
195 print "looks like hiragana\n" if charinrange($range, $codepoint);
196 compexcl
198 use Unicode::UCD 'compexcl';
200 my $compexcl = compexcl("09dc");
202 The compexcl() returns the composition exclusion (that is, if the char‐
204 acter should not be produced during a precomposition) of the character
205 specified by a code point argument.
206 If there is a composition exclusion for the character, true is
208 returned. Otherwise, false is returned.
209 casefold
211 use Unicode::UCD 'casefold';
213 my $casefold = casefold("00DF");
215 The casefold() returns the locale-independent case folding of the char‐
217 acter specified by a code point argument.
218 If there is a case folding for that character, a reference to a hash
220 with the following fields is returned:
221 key
223 code code point with at least four hexdigits
225 status "C", "F", "S", or "I"
226 mapping one or more codes separated by spaces
227 The meaning of the status is as follows:
229 C common case folding, common mappings shared
231 by both simple and full mappings
232 F full case folding, mappings that cause strings
233 to grow in length. Multiple characters are separated
234 by spaces
235 S simple case folding, mappings to single characters
236 where different from F
237 I special case for dotted uppercase I and
238 dotless lowercase i
239 - If this mapping is included, the result is
240 case-insensitive, but dotless and dotted I's
241 are not distinguished
242 - If this mapping is excluded, the result is not
243 fully case-insensitive, but dotless and dotted
244 I's are distinguished
245 If there is no case folding for that character, "undef" is returned.
247 For more information about case mappings see http://www.uni‐
249 code.org/unicode/reports/tr21/
250 casespec
252 use Unicode::UCD 'casespec';
254 my $casespec = casespec("FB00");
256 The casespec() returns the potentially locale-dependent case mapping of
258 the character specified by a code point argument. The mapping may
259 change the length of the string (which the basic Unicode case mappings
260 as returned by charinfo() never do).
261 If there is a case folding for that character, a reference to a hash
263 with the following fields is returned:
264 key
266 code code point with at least four hexdigits
268 lower lowercase
269 title titlecase
270 upper uppercase
271 condition condition list (may be undef)
272 The "condition" is optional. Where present, it consists of one or more
274 locales or contexts, separated by spaces (other than as used to sepa‐
275 rate elements, spaces are to be ignored). A condition list overrides
276 the normal behavior if all of the listed conditions are true. Case
277 distinctions in the condition list are not significant. Conditions
278 preceded by "NON_" represent the negation of the condition.
279 Note that when there are multiple case folding definitions for a single
281 code point because of different locales, the value returned by cas‐
282 espec() is a hash reference which has the locales as the keys and hash
283 references as described above as the values.
284 A locale is defined as a 2-letter ISO 3166 country code, possibly fol‐
286 lowed by a "_" and a 2-letter ISO language code (possibly followed by a
287 "_" and a variant code). You can find the lists of those codes, see
288 Locale::Country and Locale::Language.
289 A context is one of the following choices:
291 FINAL The letter is not followed by a letter of
293 general category L (e.g. Ll, Lt, Lu, Lm, or Lo)
294 MODERN The mapping is only used for modern text
295 AFTER_i The last base character was "i" (U+0069)
296 For more information about case mappings see http://www.uni‐
298 code.org/unicode/reports/tr21/
299 namedseq()
301 use Unicode::UCD 'namedseq';
303 my $namedseq = namedseq("KATAKANA LETTER AINU P");
305 my @namedseq = namedseq("KATAKANA LETTER AINU P");
306 my %namedseq = namedseq();
307 If used with a single argument in a scalar context, returns the string
309 consisting of the code points of the named sequence, or "undef" if no
310 named sequence by that name exists. If used with a single argument in
311 a list context, returns list of the code points. If used with no argu‐
312 ments in a list context, returns a hash with the names of the named
313 sequences as the keys and the named sequences as strings as the values.
314 Otherwise, returns "undef" or empty list depending on the context.
315 (New from Unicode 4.1.0)
317 Unicode::UCD::UnicodeVersion
319 Unicode::UCD::UnicodeVersion() returns the version of the Unicode Char‐
321 acter Database, in other words, the version of the Unicode standard the
322 database implements. The version is a string of numbers delimited by
323 dots ('.').
324 Implementation Note
326 The first use of charinfo() opens a read-only filehandle to the Unicode
328 Character Database (the database is included in the Perl distribution).
329 The filehandle is then kept open for further queries. In other words,
330 if you are wondering where one of your filehandles went, that's where.
331
333 Does not yet support EBCDIC platforms.
334
336 Jarkko Hietaniemi
337perl v5.8.8 2001-09-21 Unicode::UCD(3pm)