Unicode Namecode

A powerful Ruby gem for Unicode character lookups with support for official names, aliases, emojis, and fuzzy matching.

• Fast Unicode Lookups: Find codepoints by official Unicode names
• Alias Support: Look up characters using common aliases (e.g., "NULL", "TAB")
• Emoji Integration: Bidirectional emoji ↔ codepoint lookups
• Fuzzy Matching: Find characters even with typos or partial names
• Prefix Search: Discover characters starting with specific prefixes
• Reverse Lookups: Get names and emojis from codepoints
• Optimized Performance: Trie-based lookups with caching
• CLI Tool: Command-line interface for quick lookups

gem install unicode-namecode

git clone https://github.com/Aeroswift/unicode-namecode.git
cd unicode-namecode
bundle install

require 'unicode_namecode'

# Official Unicode names
UnicodeNamecode.codepoint("SNOWMAN")           # => 9731 (0x2603)
UnicodeNamecode.lookup("SNOWMAN")              # => "U+2603"

# Aliases work too!
UnicodeNamecode.codepoint("NULL")              # => 0 (0x0000)
UnicodeNamecode.codepoint("TAB")               # => 9 (0x0009)

# Character-based lookups
UnicodeNamecode.of("☃")                        # => "SNOWMAN"
UnicodeNamecode.codepoint_of("☃")              # => 9731
UnicodeNamecode.unicode_of("☃")                # => "U+2603"

# Emoji → Codepoint
UnicodeNamecode.codepoint_for_emoji("😊")      # => 128522 (0x1F60A)
UnicodeNamecode.name_for_emoji("😊")           # => "SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES"

# Codepoint → Emoji
UnicodeNamecode.emoji_for_codepoint(0x1F60A)   # => "😊"

# Prefix search
UnicodeNamecode.prefix_search("SNOW", 5)
# => [{name: "SNOWMAN", codepoint: 9731}, {name: "SNOWFLAKE", codepoint: 10052}, ...]

# Fuzzy search (for typos)
UnicodeNamecode.fuzzy_search("SNOWMN", 3)
# => [{name: "SNOWMAN", similarity: 0.85}, ...]

# Reverse lookup
UnicodeNamecode.name_for_codepoint(0x2603)     # => "SNOWMAN"

# Check if a name is an alias
UnicodeNamecode.is_alias?("NULL")              # => true
UnicodeNamecode.is_alias?("SNOWMAN")           # => false

# Get all aliases for a codepoint
UnicodeNamecode.aliases_for_codepoint(0x0000)
# => [{name: "NULL", type: "control"}, {name: "NUL", type: "abbreviation"}]

The gem includes a powerful CLI tool for quick lookups:

# Basic search (tries exact, then alias, then fuzzy)
unicode-namecode search SNOWMAN
# ✓ Found: SNOWMAN → U+2603 (9731) [official name]

unicode-namecode search NULL
# ✓ Found: NULL → U+0 (0) [alias]

# Prefix search
unicode-namecode prefix SNOW
# Names starting with 'SNOW':
#   SNOWMAN → U+2603
#   SNOWFLAKE → U+2744
#   SNOWBOARDER → U+1F3C2

# Fuzzy search for typos
unicode-namecode fuzzy SNOWMN
# Fuzzy matches for 'SNOWMN':
#   SNOWMAN → U+2603 (85.7% match)

# Emoji lookups
unicode-namecode emoji 😊
# 😊 → U+1F60A (SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES)

unicode-namecode emoji 0x1F60A
# U+1F60A → 😊 (SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES)

# Reverse lookup
unicode-namecode reverse 0x2603
# U+2603:
#   Name: SNOWMAN
#   Emoji: None
#   Aliases: []

# Alias information
unicode-namecode alias 0x0000
# U+0 ():
#   Aliases:
#     NULL (control)
#     NUL (abbreviation)

The gem is built with a modular architecture for maintainability and performance:

• UnicodeNamecode: Main module with public API
• Trie: Efficient prefix tree for fast lookups
• DataLoader: Handles data parsing and caching
• Emoji: Manages emoji-specific functionality
• Aliases: Handles Unicode name aliases
• Fuzzy: Provides typo-tolerant search

ruby test/test_unicode_namecode.rb

gem build unicode-namecode.gemspec

gem install unicode-namecode-0.1.0.gem

• First Load: ~2-3 seconds (parses Unicode data)
• Subsequent Loads: ~100ms (uses cached Trie)
• Lookup Speed: O(k) where k is the length of the name
• Memory Usage: ~50MB for full Unicode dataset

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.txt file for details.

• Unicode Consortium for the Unicode data files
• The Ruby community for inspiration and tools
• Contributors and users of this gem

Developed by Mikkal Mullen