class ActiveSupport::Multibyte::Chars
Chars enables you to work transparently with UTF-8 encoding in the Ruby String class without having extensive knowledge about the encoding. A Chars object accepts a string upon initialization and proxies String methods in an encoding safe manner. All the normal String methods are also implemented on the proxy.
String methods are proxied through the Chars object, and can be accessed through the mb_chars method. Methods which would normally return a String object now return a Chars object so methods can be chained.
'The Perfect String '.mb_chars.downcase.strip.normalize # => "the perfect string"
Chars objects are perfectly interchangeable with String objects as long as no explicit class checks are made. If certain methods do explicitly check the class, call to_s before you pass chars objects to them.
bad.explicit_checking_method 'T'.mb_chars.downcase.to_s
The default Chars implementation assumes that the encoding of the string is UTF-8, if you want to handle different encodings you can write your own multibyte string handler and configure it through ActiveSupport::Multibyte.proxy_class.
class CharsForUTF32
  def size
    @wrapped_string.size / 4
  end
  def self.accepts?(string)
    string.length % 4 == 0
  end
end
ActiveSupport::Multibyte.proxy_class = CharsForUTF32
 Attributes
Public Class Methods
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 75 def self.consumes?(string) string.encoding == Encoding::UTF_8 end
Returns true when the proxy class can handle the string. Returns false otherwise.
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 51 def initialize(string) @wrapped_string = string @wrapped_string.force_encoding(Encoding::UTF_8) unless @wrapped_string.frozen? end
Creates a new Chars instance by wrapping string.
Public Instance Methods
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 134
def capitalize
  (slice(0) || chars('')).upcase + (slice(1..-1) || chars('')).downcase
end Converts the first character to uppercase and the remainder to lowercase.
'über'.mb_chars.capitalize.to_s # => "Über"
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 170
def compose
  chars(Unicode.compose(@wrapped_string.codepoints.to_a).pack('U*'))
end Performs composition on all the characters.
'é'.length # => 3 'é'.mb_chars.compose.to_s.length # => 2
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 162
def decompose
  chars(Unicode.decompose(:canonical, @wrapped_string.codepoints.to_a).pack('U*'))
end Performs canonical decomposition on all the characters.
'é'.length # => 2 'é'.mb_chars.decompose.to_s.length # => 3
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 120 def downcase chars Unicode.downcase(@wrapped_string) end
Converts characters in the string to lowercase.
'VĚDA A VÝZKUM'.mb_chars.downcase.to_s # => "věda a výzkum"
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 178 def grapheme_length Unicode.unpack_graphemes(@wrapped_string).length end
Returns the number of grapheme clusters in the string.
'क्षि'.mb_chars.length # => 4 'क्षि'.mb_chars.grapheme_length # => 3
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 106 def limit(limit) slice(0...translate_offset(limit)) end
Limits the byte size of the string to a number of bytes without breaking characters. Usable when the storage for a string is limited for some reason.
'こんにちは'.mb_chars.limit(7).to_s # => "こん"
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 57
def method_missing(method, *args, &block)
  result = @wrapped_string.__send__(method, *args, &block)
  if method.to_s =~ /!$/
    self if result
  else
    result.kind_of?(String) ? chars(result) : result
  end
end Forward all undefined methods to the wrapped string.
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 154 def normalize(form = nil) chars(Unicode.normalize(@wrapped_string, form)) end
Returns the KC normalization of the string by default. NFKC is considered the best normalization form for passing strings to databases and validations.
-  form- The form you want to normalize in. Should be one of the following::c,:kc,:d, or:kd. Default is ActiveSupport::Multibyte::Unicode#default_normalization_form
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 69 def respond_to_missing?(method, include_private) @wrapped_string.respond_to?(method, include_private) end
Returns true if obj responds to the given method. Private methods are included in the search only if the optional second parameter evaluates to true.
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 97
def reverse
  chars(Unicode.unpack_graphemes(@wrapped_string).reverse.flatten.pack('U*'))
end Reverses all characters in the string.
'Café'.mb_chars.reverse.to_s # => 'éfaC'
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 90 def slice!(*args) chars(@wrapped_string.slice!(*args)) end
Works like String#slice!, but returns an instance of Chars, or nil if the string was not modified.
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 84
def split(*args)
  @wrapped_string.split(*args).map { |i| self.class.new(i) }
end Works just like String#split, with the exception that the items in the resulting list are Chars instances instead of String. This makes chaining methods easier.
'Café périferôl'.mb_chars.split(/é/).map { |part| part.upcase.to_s } # => ["CAF", " P", "RIFERÔL"]
  # File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 127 def swapcase chars Unicode.swapcase(@wrapped_string) end
Converts characters in the string to the opposite case.
'El Cañón".mb_chars.swapcase.to_s # => "eL cAÑÓN"
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 187 def tidy_bytes(force = false) chars(Unicode.tidy_bytes(@wrapped_string, force)) end
Replaces all ISO-8859-1 or CP1252 characters by their UTF-8 equivalent resulting in a valid UTF-8 string.
Passing true will forcibly tidy all bytes, assuming that the string's encoding is entirely CP1252 or ISO-8859-1.
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 142
def titleize
  chars(downcase.to_s.gsub(/\b('?\S)/u) { Unicode.upcase($1)})
end Capitalizes the first letter of every word, when possible.
"ÉL QUE SE ENTERÓ".mb_chars.titleize # => "Él Que Se Enteró" "日本語".mb_chars.titleize # => "日本語"
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/chars.rb, line 113 def upcase chars Unicode.upcase(@wrapped_string) end
Converts characters in the string to uppercase.
'Laurent, où sont les tests ?'.mb_chars.upcase.to_s # => "LAURENT, OÙ SONT LES TESTS ?"
    © 2004–2018 David Heinemeier Hansson
Licensed under the MIT License.