1# Unicode Text Segmentation for Go
2
3[](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg)
4[](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/rivo/uniseg)
5
6This 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).
7
8## Background
9
10### Grapheme Clusters
11
12In 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:
13
14|String|Bytes (UTF-8)|Code points (runes)|Grapheme clusters|
15|-|-|-|-|
16|Käse|6 bytes: `4b 61 cc 88 73 65`|5 code points: `4b 61 308 73 65`|4 clusters: `[4b],[61 308],[73],[65]`|
17|🏳️🌈|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]`|
18|🇩🇪|8 bytes: `f0 9f 87 a9 f0 9f 87 aa`|2 code points: `1f1e9 1f1ea`|1 cluster: `[1f1e9 1f1ea]`|
19
20This 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.
21
22### Word Boundaries
23
24Word 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.
25
26### Sentence Boundaries
27
28Sentence 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.
29
30### Line Breaking
31
32Line 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).
33
34### Monospace Width
35
36Most 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.
37
38## Installation
39
40```bash
41go get github.com/rivo/uniseg
42```
43
44## Examples
45
46### Counting Characters in a String
47
48```go
49n := uniseg.GraphemeClusterCount("🇩🇪🏳️🌈")
50fmt.Println(n)
51// 2
52```
53
54### Calculating the Monospace String Width
55
56```go
57width := uniseg.StringWidth("🇩🇪🏳️🌈!")
58fmt.Println(width)
59// 5
60```
61
62### Using the [`Graphemes`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#Graphemes) Class
63
64This is the most convenient method of iterating over grapheme clusters:
65
66```go
67gr := uniseg.NewGraphemes("👍🏼!")
68for gr.Next() {
69 fmt.Printf("%x ", gr.Runes())
70}
71// [1f44d 1f3fc] [21]
72```
73
74### Using the [`Step`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#Step) or [`StepString`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#StepString) Function
75
76This avoids allocating a new `Graphemes` object but it requires the handling of states and boundaries:
77
78```go
79str := "🇩🇪🏳️🌈"
80state := -1
81var c string
82for len(str) > 0 {
83 c, str, _, state = uniseg.StepString(str, state)
84 fmt.Printf("%x ", []rune(c))
85}
86// [1f1e9 1f1ea] [1f3f3 fe0f 200d 1f308]
87```
88
89### Advanced Examples
90
91The [`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):
92
93```go
94str := "Hello, world!"
95state := -1
96var c string
97for len(str) > 0 {
98 c, str, state = uniseg.FirstWordInString(str, state)
99 fmt.Printf("(%s)\n", c)
100}
101// (Hello)
102// (,)
103// ( )
104// (world)
105// (!)
106```
107
108Similarly, use
109
110- [`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,
111- [`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
112- [`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).
113
114If 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.
115
116Finally, if you need to reverse a string while preserving grapheme clusters, use [`ReverseString`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg#ReverseString):
117
118```go
119fmt.Println(uniseg.ReverseString("🇩🇪🏳️🌈"))
120// 🏳️🌈🇩🇪
121```
122
123## Documentation
124
125Refer to https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/uniseg for the package's documentation.
126
127## Dependencies
128
129This package does not depend on any packages outside the standard library.
130
131## Sponsor this Project
132
133[Become a Sponsor on GitHub](https://github.com/sponsors/rivo?metadata_source=uniseg_readme) to support this project!
134
135## Your Feedback
136
137Add your issue here on GitHub, preferably before submitting any PR's. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.View as plain text