How to use the command 'chars' (with examples)

The ‘chars’ command is a utility that allows users to look up names and codes for various ASCII and Unicode characters and code points. It provides a convenient way to explore and identify different characters.

Use case 1: Look up a character by its value

Code:

chars 'ß'

Motivation: When working with text or encoding, it can be useful to quickly look up the name and code for a specific character. By using the ‘chars’ command with the character value, we can easily obtain this information.

Explanation: In this command, we use the single quotes to specify the character we want to look up, in this case, the character ‘ß’. The provided character value is treated as a string input and the ‘chars’ command searches for the character and returns its name and code.

Example output:

LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S
Unicode: U+00DF
HTML Entity: ß

Use case 2: Look up a character by its Unicode code point

Code:

chars U+1F63C

Motivation: Unicode code points are widely used to represent characters in various applications. By using the ‘chars’ command with a Unicode code point value, we can quickly retrieve information about the corresponding character.

Explanation: In this command, we specify the Unicode code point using the ‘U+’ prefix followed by the hexadecimal value for the code point (in this case, U+1F63C). The ‘chars’ command searches for the character associated with this code point and returns its name and code.

Example output:

CAT FACE WITH WRY SMILE
Unicode: U+1F63C
HTML Entity: 😼

Use case 3: Look up possible characters given an ambiguous code point

Code:

chars 10

Motivation: In some cases, a code point may be ambiguous, referring to multiple characters. By using the ‘chars’ command with an ambiguous code point, we can explore the potential characters associated with it.

Explanation: In this command, we provide the ambiguous code point value (10), and the ‘chars’ command searches for the possible characters corresponding to this code point. It returns a list of names and codes for each possible character.

Example output:

DIGIT ZERO
Unicode: U+0030
HTML Entity: 0

Use case 4: Look up a control character

Code:

chars "^C"

Motivation: Control characters are special characters that have unique meanings in specific contexts, such as controlling devices or formatting text. By using the ‘chars’ command with a control character, we can retrieve information about its name and code.

Explanation: In this command, we specify the control character using the caret (^) symbol followed by the character we want to look up (in this case, C). The ‘chars’ command then searches for the control character and returns its name and code.

Example output:

END OF TEXT
Unicode: U+0003
HTML Entity: 

Conclusion:

The ‘chars’ command provides a simple and efficient way to look up names and codes for various ASCII and Unicode characters and code points. By using the examples provided above, users can quickly retrieve information about characters based on their values, Unicode code points, ambiguous code points, or control characters.