# Re: unicode in ruby

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-unicode-in-ruby/78671>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 8, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-unicode-in-ruby/78671 "2006-03-08T20:26:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-unicode-in-ruby/78671/1 "2006-03-08T20:26:05Z")

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Dear Michal,

hmm.  
I have written the most complex Czech text file I could think of  
containing  
the words Cesky and cesky - with hooks, that is, and saved it in UTF8  
encoding as file utf8.txt.  
Now, having installed Library No. 8 from  
\_[http://www.yoshidam.net/Ruby.html\_](http://www.yoshidam.net/Ruby.html_)  
([http://www.yoshidam.net/Ruby.html](http://www.yoshidam.net/Ruby.html)) ,  
the following script

* * *

#!/c/axelhome/ruby -Ku -rjcode  
require “unicode”

text=IO.readlines(“/c/axelhome/ruby/utf8.txt”)  
p ‘mytext’  
p text  
c=text.to\_s.split  
p c  
d=Unicode::downcase(c[0])  
e=Unicode::downcase(c[1])  
puts “are the first letters equal ? #{d==e}”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 9:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-unicode-in-ruby/78671/2 "2006-03-08T21:29:56Z")

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On 3/8/06, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Dear Michal,
> 
> hmm.  
> I have written the most complex Czech text file I could think of containing  
> the words Cesky and cesky - with hooks, that is, and saved it in UTF8

hmm, I wonder why C with a hook is called Ccaron in keymaps…

> encoding as file utf8.txt.  
> Now, having installed Library No. 8 from \_[http://www.yoshidam.net/Ruby.html\_](http://www.yoshidam.net/Ruby.html_)

This is much smaller library than icu, and it could be useful for some  
other text processing.  
Thanks for the link.

But it is still a library one has to install in addition to Ruby. Some  
people who install Debian won’t even have a compiler, and almost  
nobody has a compiler on Windows.

Also note that unless you know the language you are processing you  
cannot get correct upcase/downcase. For one, in most languages using  
Latin letters I is uppercase form of i. But I heared that in Turkish  
they use both I, I with dot, i, and i without dot. Consequently, I is  
uppercase form of i without dot …

Thanks

Michal

–  
Support the freedom of music!  
Maybe it’s a weird genre … but weird is _not_ illegal.  
Maybe next time they will send a special forces commando  
to your picnic … because they think you are weird.  
[www.music-versus-guns.org](http://www.music-versus-guns.org)[http://en.policejnistat.cz](http://en.policejnistat.cz)