Utilizing the Unicode character set

**DarkLordoftheMonkeys** · 01-11-2010, 09:04 AM

Unicode is a 16-bit character set that includes characters for Asian, Arabic, Greek, and other languages as well as several special symbols. It is backwards compatible with ASCII.

The code name for Unicode is utf-8, sometimes utf-16. To include Unicode characters in an HTML document, use the tag:

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

To include Unicode characters in an XML document, set the encoding to Unicode, like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

Several programming languages, such as Javascript and C99, allow you to print Unicode characters using the escape sequence \uXXXX, where XXXX is the hexidecimal code for the character.

Example:

printf( "\u0250\n ");

prints an upside-down a. I made a Javascript that flips inputted text upside down using this piece of information:

Code:

<html>
<head>
<title>lksag</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<script type="text/javascript">
function fliptext(){
	var inputText = document.getElementById('textin').value;
	var textArray = new Array();
	var flipped = document.getElementById('flip');
	for( i = 0; i < inputText.length; i++ ){
		textArray[i] = inputText.charAt(i);
	}
	var reverseText = textArray.reverse();
	flipped.innerHTML = "";
	for( i = 0; i < reverseText.length; i++ ){
		flipped.innerHTML += upsideDown(reverseText[i]);
	}
}
function upsideDown( ch ){
	switch (ch){
		case 'a': return "\u0250";
		case 'A': return "\u0250";
		case 'b': return "q";
		case 'B': return "q";
		case 'c': return "\u0254";
		case 'C': return "\u0254";
		case 'd': return "p";
		case 'D': return "p";
		case 'e': return "\u01dd";
		case 'E': return "\u01dd";
		case 'f': return "\u025f";
		case 'F': return "\u025f";
		case 'g': return "\u0183";
		case 'G': return "\u0183";
		case 'h': return "\u0265";
		case 'H': return "\u0265";
		case 'i': return "\u0131";
		case 'I': return "\u0131";
		case 'j': return "\u027e";
		case 'J': return "\u027e";
		case 'k': return "\u029e";
		case 'K': return "\u029e";
		case 'l': return "l";
		case 'L': return "l";
		case 'm': return "\u026f";
		case 'M': return "\u026f";
		case 'n': return "u";
		case 'N': return "u";
		case 'o': return "o";
		case 'O': return "o";
		case 'p': return "d";
		case 'P': return "d";
		case 'q': return "b";
		case 'Q': return "b";
		case 'r': return "\u0279";
		case 'R': return "\u0279";
		case 's': return "s";
		case 'S': return "s";
		case 't': return "\u0287";
		case 'T': return "\u0287";
		case 'u': return "n";
		case 'U': return "n";
		case 'v': return "\u028c";
		case 'V': return "\u028c";
		case 'w': return "\u028d";
		case 'W': return "\u028d";
		case 'x': return "x";
		case 'X': return "x";
		case 'y': return "\u028e";
		case 'Y': return "\u028e";
		case 'z': return "z";
		case 'Z': return "z";
		case '0': return "0";
		case '1': return "\u21c2";
		case '2': return "\u1105";
		case '3': return "\u1110";
		case '4': return "\u3123";
		case '5': return "S";
		case '6': return "9";
		case '7': return "L";
		case '8': return "8";
		case '9': return "6";
		case ' ': return " ";
		case '\n': return "<br />";
		case '.': return "\u02d9";
		case ',': return "\'";
		case '\'': return ",";
		case '\"': return ",,";
		case '!': return "¡";
		case '?': return "\u00bf";
		case '@': return "@";
		case '#': return "#";
		case '$': return "$";
		case '%': return "%";
		case '^': return "v";
		case '/': return "/";
		case '\\': return "\\";
		case '<': return ">";
		case '>': return "<";
		case '(': return ")";
		case ')': return "(";
		case '[': return "]";
		case ']': return "[";
		case '{': return "}";
		case '}': return "{";
		case ':': return ":";
		case '*': return "*";
		case '-': return "-";
		case '+': return "+";
		case '=': return "=";
		case '&': return "+";
		default: return "";
	}
}
</script>
<style type="text/css">
div{
	font-family: Courier;
	width: 400px;
	text-align: right;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<textarea id="textin" cols="35" rows="5" onkeypress="fliptext();" onkeyup="fliptext();">
</textarea>
<br />
<div id="flip"></span>
</form>

</body>
</html>

There are a few ways to find the hexidecimal code for a Unicode character. The method that I use is the copy the character into Vim, then type ga in command mode when the cursor is over the character. This gives the decimal, octal, and hexidecimal values.