Working with Strings with Combining Characters

This article was previously published on my blog, Just Like a Magic.

Contents

• Introduction
• Enumerating a String with Only Base Characters
• Enumerating a String with Combining Characters
• Comparing Strings
• Using the Character Map Application
• Try it out!

Introduction

In some languages, like Arabic and Hebrew, you combine some characters with combining characters based on the pronunciation of the word. Combining characters are characters (like diacritics, etc.) that are combined with base characters to change the pronunciation of the word (sometimes called vocalization.) Some examples of combining characters are diacritics:

	Base Character	Combining Character(s)	Result
1 Combining a single character	Arabic Letter Teh 0x062A	Arabic Damma 0x064F	Letter Teh + Damma
2 Combining two characters	Arabic Letter Teh 0x062A	Arabic Shadda 0x0651 Arabic Fathatan 0x064B	Letter Teh + Shadda + Fathatan

When you combine a character with another one, then you end up with two characters. When you combine two characters with a base one, you end up with 3 characters combined in one, and so on.

Enumerating a String with Base Characters

Now we are going to try an example. This example uses a simple word, (Mohammad; the name of the Islam prophet.)

This word (with the diacritics) consists of 9 characters, sequentially as follows:

1. Meem
2. Damma (a combining character combined with the previous Meem)
3. Kashida
4. Hah
5. Meem
6. Shadda (a combining character)
7. Fatha (a combining character both Shadda and Fatha are combined with the Meem)
8. Kashida
9. Dal

After characters are combined with their bases, we end up with 6 characters sequentially as follows:

1. Meem (have a Damma above)
2. Kashida
3. Hah
4. Meem (have a Shadda and a Fatha above)
5. Kashida
6. Dal

The following code simply enumerates the string and displays a message box with each character along with its index:  

string someName = "مُـحمَّـد";

for (int i = 0; i < someName.Length; i++)
    MessageBox.Show(string.Format("{0}t{1}", someName[i]));

What we get? When enumerating the string, we enumerate its base characters only.

Enumerating a String with Combining Characters

.NET Framework provides a way for enumerating strings with combining characters, it is via the TextElementEnumerator and StringInfo types (both reside in namespace System.Globalization.) The following code demonstrates how you can enumerate a string along with its combining characters:

string someName = "مُـحمَّـد";

TextElementEnumerator enumerator = StringInfo.GetTextElementEnumerator(someName);

while (enumerator.MoveNext())
    MessageBox.Show(string.Format("{0}t{1}", enumerator.ElementIndex, enumerator.Current));

Comparing Strings

Sometimes, you will be faced with a situation where you need to compare two identical strings which differ only by their diacritics (combining characters) for instance. If you were to compare them using the common way (using String.Compare for instance), they would be different because of the combining characters.

To overcome this, you will need to use a special overload of String.Compare method: 

string withCombiningChars = "مُـحمَّـد";
string withoutCombiningChars = "محمد";

Console.WriteLine(string.Compare(withCombiningChars,
    withoutCombiningChars) == 0 ? "Both strings are the same." : "The strings are different!");

if (string.Compare(withCombiningChars, 
    withoutCombiningChars, Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture, CompareOptions.IgnoreSymbols) == 0)
    Console.WriteLine("Both strings are the same.");
else
    Console.WriteLine("The strings are different!"); 

The Kashida ـ isn't of the Arabic alphabets. It's most likely be a space! So the option CompareOptions.IgnoreSymbols ignores it from comparison.

Writing Arabic Diacritics

The following table summarizes the Arabic diacritics and the keyboard shortcut for each character:

Unicode Representation	Character	Name	Shortcut
0x064B		Fathatan	Shift + W
0x064C		Dammatan	Shift + R
0x064D		Kasratan	Shift + S
0x064E		Fatha	Shift + Q
0x064F		Damma	Shift + E
0x0650		Kasra	Shift + A
0x0651		Shadda	Shift + ~
0x0652		Sukun	Shift + X

Using the Character Map Application

Microsoft Windows comes with an application that helps you in browsing the characters that a font supports. This application is called, Character Map.

You can access this application by typing charmap.exe into Run, or pressing Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Character Map.

Try It Out!

Code examples for the reader to discover:

A.

string someName = "مُـحمَّـد";

MessageBox.Show(StringInfo.GetNextTextElement(someName,2));


B.

string a = "Adam";
string b = "Ádam";

Console.WriteLine(string.Compare(a, b) == 0 ? "They are the same." : "No, They are different.");

// Also try changing the CultureInfo object
if (string.Compare(a, b, Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture, CompareOptions.IgnoreNonSpace) == 0)
    Console.WriteLine("They are the same.");
else
    Console.WriteLine("No, They are different.");