unicode::ucd(3)

NAME

Unicode::UCD - Unicode character database

SYNOPSIS

use Unicode::UCD 'charinfo';
my $charinfo   = charinfo($codepoint);
use Unicode::UCD 'charblock';
my $charblock  = charblock($codepoint);
use Unicode::UCD 'charscript';
my $charscript = charblock($codepoint);
use Unicode::UCD 'charblocks';
my $charblocks = charblocks();
use Unicode::UCD 'charscripts';
my %charscripts = charscripts();
use Unicode::UCD qw(charscript charinrange);
my $range = charscript($script);
print  "looks  like  $script0  if  charinrange($range,
$codepoint);
use Unicode::UCD 'compexcl';
my $compexcl = compexcl($codepoint);
my $unicode_version = Unicode::UCD::UnicodeVersion();

DESCRIPTION

The Unicode::UCD module offers a simple interface to the
Unicode Character Database.

charinfo

use Unicode::UCD 'charinfo';

my $charinfo = charinfo(0x41);

charinfo() returns a reference to a hash that has the fol lowing fields as defined by the Unicode standard:

key

code code point with at least four hexdig

its
name name of the character IN UPPER CASE
category general category of the character
combining classes used in the Canonical Order

ing Algorithm
bidi bidirectional category
decomposition character decomposition mapping
decimal if decimal digit this is the integer

numeric value
digit if digit this is the numeric value
numeric if numeric is the integer or rational

numeric value
mirrored if mirrored in bidirectional text
unicode10 Unicode 1.0 name if existed and dif

ferent
comment ISO 10646 comment field
upper uppercase equivalent mapping
lower lowercase equivalent mapping
title titlecase equivalent mapping

block

block

the
script script the character belongs to

If no match is found, a reference to an empty hash is
returned.

The "block" property is the same as returned by char_
info(). It is not defined in the Unicode Character
Database proper (Chapter 4 of the Unicode 3.0 Standard,
aka TUS3) but instead in an auxiliary database (Chapter 14
of TUS3). Similarly for the "script" property.

Note that you cannot do (de)composition and casing based
solely on the above "decomposition" and "lower", "upper",
"title", properties, you will need also the compexcl(), casefold(), and casespec() functions.

charblock

use Unicode::UCD 'charblock';

my $charblock = charblock(0x41);
my $charblock = charblock(1234);
my $charblock = charblock("0x263a");
my $charblock = charblock("U+263a");

my $range = charblock('Armenian');

With a code point argument charblock() returns the block the character belongs to, e.g. "Basic Latin". Note that
not all the character positions within all blocks are
defined.

See also "Blocks versus Scripts".

If supplied with an argument that can't be a code point,
charblock() tries to do the opposite and interpret the argument as a character block. The return value is a
range: an anonymous list of lists that contain start-ofrange, end-of-range code point pairs. You can test whether a code point is in a range using the "charinrange" func
tion. If the argument is not a known charater block,
"undef" is returned.

charscript

use Unicode::UCD 'charscript';

my $charscript = charscript(0x41);
my $charscript = charscript(1234);
my $charscript = charscript("U+263a");

my $range = charscript('Thai');

With a code point argument charscript() returns the script the character belongs to, e.g. "Latin", "Greek", "Han".

See also "Blocks versus Scripts".

If supplied with an argument that can't be a code point,
charscript() tries to do the opposite and interpret the argument as a character script. The return value is a
range: an anonymous list of lists that contain start-ofrange, end-of-range code point pairs. You can test whether a code point is in a range using the "charinrange" func
tion. If the argument is not a known charater script,
"undef" is returned.

charblocks

use Unicode::UCD 'charblocks';

my $charblocks = charblocks();

charblocks() returns a reference to a hash with the known block names as the keys, and the code point ranges (see
"charblock") as the values.

See also "Blocks versus Scripts".

charscripts

use Unicode::UCD 'charscripts';

my %charscripts = charscripts();

charscripts() returns a hash with the known script names as the keys, and the code point ranges (see "charscript")
as the values.

See also "Blocks versus Scripts".

Blocks versus Scripts

The difference between a block and a script is that
scripts are closer to the linguistic notion of a set of
characters required to present languages, while block is
more of an artifact of the Unicode character numbering and
separation into blocks of (mostly) 256 characters.

For example the Latin script is spread over several
blocks, such as "Basic Latin", "Latin 1 Supplement",
"Latin Extended-A", and "Latin Extended-B". On the other
hand, the Latin script does not contain all the characters
of the "Basic Latin" block (also known as the ASCII): it
includes only the letters, and not, for example, the dig
its or the punctuation.

For blocks see http://www.unicode.org/Pub
lic/UNIDATA/Blocks.txt

For scripts see UTR #24: http://www.unicode.org/uni
code/reports/tr24/

Matching Scripts and Blocks

Scripts are matched with the regular-expression construct
"{...}" (e.g. matches characters of the
Tibetan

script), is used for blocks
(e.g. matches any of the 256 code points
in the Tibetan block).

Code Point Arguments

A code point argument is either a decimal or a hexadecimal scalar designating a Unicode character, or "U+" followed
by hexadecimals designating a Unicode character. Note
that Unicode is not limited to 16 bits (the number of Uni
code characters is open-ended, in theory unlimited): you
may have more than 4 hexdigits.

charinrange

In

addition and "P{In...}" con
structs, you can also test whether a code point is in the
range as returned by "charblock" and "charscript" or as
the values of the hash returned by "charblocks" and
"charscripts" by using charinrange():

use Unicode::UCD qw(charscript charinrange);

$range = charscript('Hiragana');
print "looks like hiragana0 if charinrange($range,

$codepoint);

compexcl

use Unicode::UCD 'compexcl';

my $compexcl = compexcl("09dc");

The compexcl() returns the composition exclusion (that is, if the character should not be produced during a precompo
sition) of the character specified by a code point argu ment.

If there is a composition exclusion for the character,
true is returned. Otherwise, false is returned.

casefold

use Unicode::UCD 'casefold';

my %casefold = casefold("09dc");

The casefold() returns the locale-independent case folding of the character specified by a code point argument.

If there is a case folding for that character, a reference
to a hash with the following fields is returned:

key

code code point with at least four hexdig

its
status "C", "F", "S", or "I"
mapping one or more codes separated by spaces

The meaning of the status is as follows:

C common case folding, common mappings

shared

by both simple and full mappings

F full case folding, mappings that

cause strings

to grow in length. Multiple charac

ters are separated
by spaces

S simple case folding, mappings to sin

gle characters

where different from F

I special case for dotted uppercase I

and

dotless lowercase i
- If this mapping is included, the

result is

case-insensitive, but dotless and

dotted I's
are not distinguished

- If this mapping is excluded, the

result is not

fully case-insensitive, but dotless

and dotted
I's are distinguished

If there is no case folding for that character, "undef" is
returned.

For more information about case mappings see
http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr21/

casespec

use Unicode::UCD 'casespec';

my %casespec = casespec("09dc");

The casespec() returns the potentially locale-dependent case mapping of the character specified by a code point argument. The mapping may change the length of the string (which the basic Unicode case mappings as returned by
charinfo() never do).

If there is a case folding for that character, a reference
to a hash with the following fields is returned:

key

code code point with at least four hexdig

its
lower lowercase
title titlecase
upper uppercase
condition condition list (may be undef)

The "condition" is optional. Where present, it consists
of one or more locales or contexts, separated by spaces (other than as used to separate elements, spaces are to be
ignored). A condition list overrides the normal behavior
if all of the listed conditions are true. Case distinc
tions in the condition list are not significant. Condi
tions preceded by "NON_" represent the negation of the
condition

Note that when there are multiple case folding definitions
for a single code point because of different locales, the
value returned by casespec() is a hash reference which has the locales as the keys and hash references as described
above as the values.

A locale is defined as a 2-letter ISO 3166 country code,
possibly followed by a "_" and a 2-letter ISO language
code (possibly followed by a "_" and a variant code). You
can find the lists of those codes, see Locale::Country and
Locale::Language.

A context is one of the following choices:

FINAL The letter is not followed by a let

ter of

general category L (e.g. Ll, Lt, Lu,

Lm, or Lo)

MODERN The mapping is only used for modern

text
AFTER_i The last base character was "i"

(U+0069)

For more information about case mappings see
http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr21/

Unicode::UCD::UnicodeVersion

Unicode::UCD::UnicodeVersion() returns the version of the Unicode Character Database, in other words, the version of
the Unicode standard the database implements. The version
is a string of numbers delimited by dots ('.').

Implementation Note

The first use of charinfo() opens a read-only filehandle to the Unicode Character Database (the database is
included in the Perl distribution). The filehandle is
then kept open for further queries. In other words, if
you are wondering where one of your filehandles went,
that's where.

BUGS

Does not yet support EBCDIC platforms.

AUTHOR

Jarkko Hietaniemi

perl v5.8.0 2002-06-01 Unicode::UCD(3)