CharacterSet

This is a C-extended Ruby gem to work with sets of Unicode codepoints.

It can read and write sets of codepoints in various formats and it implements the stdlib Set interface for them.

It also offers a way of scrubbing and scanning characters in Strings that is more semantic and consistently offers better performance than Regexp and String methods from the stdlib for this (see benchmarks).

Many parts can be used independently, e.g.:

CharacterSet::Character
CharacterSet::ExpressionConverter
CharacterSet::Parser
CharacterSet::Writer

Usage

Usage examples

CharacterSet.url_query.cover?('?a=(b$c;)') # => true

CharacterSet.non_ascii.delete_in!(string)

CharacterSet.emoji.sample(5) # => ["⛷", "👈", "🌞", "♑", "⛈"]

Parse/Initialize

These all produce a CharacterSet containing a, b and c:

CharacterSet['a', 'b', 'c']
CharacterSet[97, 98, 99]
CharacterSet.new('a'..'c')
CharacterSet.new(0x61..0x63)
CharacterSet.of('abacababa')
CharacterSet.parse('[a-c]')
CharacterSet.parse('\U00000061-\U00000063')

If the gems regexp_parser and regexp_property_values are installed, Regexp instances and unicode property names can also be read.

CharacterSet.of(/./) # => #<CharacterSet (size: 1112064)>
CharacterSet.of_property('Thai') # => #<CharacterSet (size: 86)>

require 'character_set/core_ext/regexp_ext'

/[\D&&[:ascii:]&&\p{emoji}]/.character_set.size # => 2

Predefined utility sets

ascii, ascii_alnum, ascii_letter, assigned, bmp, crypt, emoji, newline, surrogate, unicode, url_fragment, url_host, url_path, url_query, whitespace

CharacterSet.ascii # => #<CharacterSet (size: 128)>

# all can be prefixed with `non_`, e.g.
CharacterSet.non_ascii

Interact with Strings

CharacterSet can replace some types of String handling with better performance than the stdlib.

#used_by? and #cover? can replace some Regexp#match? calls:

CharacterSet.ascii.used_by?('Tüür') # => true
CharacterSet.ascii.cover?('Tüür') # => false
CharacterSet.ascii.cover?('Tr') # => true

#delete_in(!) and #keep_in(!) can replace String#gsub(!) and the like:

string = 'Tüür'

CharacterSet.ascii.delete_in(string) # => 'üü'
CharacterSet.ascii.keep_in(string) # => 'Tr'
string # => 'Tüür'

CharacterSet.ascii.delete_in!(string) # => 'üü'
string # => 'üü'
CharacterSet.ascii.keep_in!(string) # => ''
string # => ''

#count_in and #scan can replace String#count and String#scan:

CharacterSet.non_ascii.count_in('Tüür') # => 2
CharacterSet.non_ascii.scan('Tüür') # => ['ü', 'ü']

There is also a core extension for String interaction.

require 'character_set/core_ext/string_ext'

"a\rb".character_set & CharacterSet.newline # => CharacterSet["\r"]
"a\rb".uses_character_set?(CharacterSet['ä', 'ö', 'ü']) # => false
"a\rb".covered_by_character_set?(CharacterSet.newline) # => false

# predefined sets can also be referenced via Symbols
"a\rb".covered_by_character_set?(:ascii) # => true
"a\rb".delete_character_set(:newline) # => 'ab'
# etc.

Manipulate

Use any Ruby Set method, e.g. #+, #-, #&, #^, #intersect?, #<, #> etc. to interact with other sets. Use #add, #delete, #include? etc. to change or check for members.

Where appropriate, methods take both chars and codepoints, e.g.:

CharacterSet['a'].add('b') # => CharacterSet['a', 'b']
CharacterSet['a'].add(98) # => CharacterSet['a', 'b']
CharacterSet['a'].include?('a') # => true
CharacterSet['a'].include?(0x61) # => true

#inversion can be used to create a CharacterSet with all valid Unicode codepoints that are not in the current set:

non_a = CharacterSet['a'].inversion
# => #<CharacterSet (size: 1112063)>

non_a.include?('a') # => false
non_a.include?('ü') # => true

# surrogate pair halves are not included by default
CharacterSet['a'].inversion(include_surrogates: true)
# => #<CharacterSet (size: 1114112)>

#case_insensitive can be used to create a CharacterSet where upper/lower case codepoints are supplemented:

CharacterSet['1', 'A'].case_insensitive # => CharacterSet['1', 'A', 'a']

Write

set = CharacterSet['a', 'b', 'c', 'j', '-']

# safely printable ASCII chars are not escaped by default
set.to_s # => 'a-cj\x2D'
set.to_s(escape_all: true) # => '\x61-\x63\x6A\x2D'

# brackets may be added
set.to_s(in_brackets: true) # => '[a-cj\x2D]'

# the default escape format is Ruby/ES6 compatible, others are available
set = CharacterSet['a', 'b', 'c', 'ɘ', '🤩']
set.to_s # => 'a-c\u0258\u{1F929}'
set.to_s(format: 'U+') # => 'a-cU+0258U+1F929'
set.to_s(format: 'Python') # => "a-c\u0258\U0001F929"
set.to_s(format: 'raw') # => 'a-cɘ🤩'

# or pass a block
set.to_s { |char| "[#{char.codepoint}]" } # => "a-c[600][129321]"
set.to_s(escape_all: true) { |c| "<#{c.hex}>" } # => "<61>-<63><258><1F929>"

# disable abbreviation (grouping of codepoints in ranges)
set.to_s(abbreviate: false) # => "abc\u0258\u{1F929}"

# astral members require some trickery if we want to target environments
# that are based on UTF-16 or "UCS-2 with surrogates", such as JavaScript.
set = CharacterSet['a', 'b', '🤩', '🤪', '🤫']

# Use #to_s_with_surrogate_ranges e.g. for JavaScript:
set.to_s_with_surrogate_ranges
# => '(?:[ab]|\uD83E[\uDD29-\uDD2B])'

# Or use #to_s_with_surrogate_alternation if such surrogate set pairs
# don't work in your target environment:
set.to_s_with_surrogate_alternation
# => '(?:[ab]|\uD83E\uDD29|\uD83E\uDD2A|\uD83E\uDD2B)'

Other features

Secure tokens

Generate secure random strings of characters from a set:

CharacterSet.new('a'..'z').secure_token(8) # => "ugwpujmt"
CharacterSet.crypt.secure_token # => "8.1w7aBT737/pMfcMoO4y2y8/=0xtmo:"

Unicode planes

There are some methods to check for planes and to handle ASCII, BMP and astral parts:

CharacterSet['a', 'ü', '🤩'].ascii_part # => CharacterSet['a']
CharacterSet['a', 'ü', '🤩'].ascii_part? # => true
CharacterSet['a', 'ü', '🤩'].ascii_only? # => false
CharacterSet['a', 'ü', '🤩'].ascii_ratio # => 0.3333333
CharacterSet['a', 'ü', '🤩'].bmp_part # => CharacterSet['a', 'ü']
CharacterSet['a', 'ü', '🤩'].astral_part # => CharacterSet['🤩']
CharacterSet['a', 'ü', '🤩'].bmp_ratio # => 0.6666666
CharacterSet['a', 'ü', '🤩'].planes # => [0, 1]
CharacterSet['a', 'ü', '🤩'].plane(1) # => CharacterSet['🤩']
CharacterSet['a', 'ü', '🤩'].member_in_plane?(7) # => false
CharacterSet::Character.new('a').plane # => 0

Contributions

Feel free to send suggestions, point out issues, or submit pull requests.