javascript detect if a string contains only unicode emojis

Question

I'm using the following function to replace emojis in a string and is working great:

function doEmoji(s){
    var ranges = [
        '\ud83c[\udf00-\udfff]', // U+1F300 to U+1F3FF
        '\ud83d[\udc00-\ude4f]', // U+1F400 to U+1F64F
        '\ud83d[\ude80-\udeff]'  // U+1F680 to U+1F6FF
    ];
    var x = s.toString(16).replace(new RegExp(ranges.join('|'), 'g'),' whatever ');
    return x;
};

Now I want to check if that string only contains emojis or space characters. The reason why I want to do this is because I want to replace emojis only if no other characters are present(except space).

Some examples:

Hello how are you?  //do nothing
‍‍ // replace emojis
‍‍  // replace emojis

I'm looking for a simple solution, a regex maybe. Thanks

Anchored repeating alternatives should do it: `/^(?:alternative1|alternative2|alternative3)*$/.test(str)` — T.J. Crowder, Dec 10 '16 at 19:40

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered May 25 '17 at 03:11

6

Just a minor adjustment to find if the string has only emojis and spaces...

const ranges = [
  '\ud83c[\udf00-\udfff]', // U+1F300 to U+1F3FF
  '\ud83d[\udc00-\ude4f]', // U+1F400 to U+1F64F
  '\ud83d[\ude80-\udeff]', // U+1F680 to U+1F6FF
  ' ', // Also allow spaces
].join('|');

const removeEmoji = str => str.replace(new RegExp(ranges, 'g'), '');

const isOnlyEmojis = str => !removeEmoji(str).length;

answered May 25 '17 at 03:11

bholben

1,077
1
15
24

This range does not work for emojis like ‍‍♂️ With this range, it works perfectly: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24840667/what-is-the-regex-to-extract-all-the-emojis-from-a-string/42236875#42236875 – Igor O Jan 15 '20 at 12:38
This range is incomplete. Use `\p{Emoji}` instead https://stackoverflow.com/a/64007175/8186898 – Nino Filiu Apr 09 '21 at 08:00

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered May 13 '20 at 19:27

3

A simple solution, if you don't want any dependencies:

containsOnlyEmojis(text) {
  const onlyEmojis = text.replace(new RegExp('[\u0000-\u1eeff]', 'g'), '')
  const visibleChars = text.replace(new RegExp('[\n\r\s]+|( )+', 'g'), '')
  return onlyEmojis.length === visibleChars.length
}

It removes all characters from unicode charsets that are regular alphabets and symbols for writing, and leaves out emojis and some other remaining things that, for our use case, was ok, but that's probably the only caveat.

Source for chatset ranges: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_block

answered May 13 '20 at 19:27

Lucas C. Feijo

1,002
3
13
29

This range is incomplete. Use `\p{Emoji}` instead stackoverflow.com/a/64007175/8186898 – Nino Filiu Apr 09 '21 at 08:01
@NinoFiliu nice – Lucas C. Feijo Apr 15 '21 at 23:08

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 07 '19 at 17:16

2

In 2018/2019 there are more emoji added, so I modified a bit bholben's RegExp (source: regextester.com):

const ranges = [
    '\u00a9|\u00ae|[\u2000-\u3300]|\ud83c[\ud000-\udfff]|\ud83d[\ud000-\udfff]|\ud83e[\ud000-\udfff]',
    ' ', // Also allow spaces
].join('|');

const removeEmoji = str => str.replace(new RegExp(ranges, 'g'), '');

const isOnlyEmojis = str => !removeEmoji(str).length;

answered Apr 07 '19 at 17:16

Ilarion Halushka

2,083
18
13

This range is incomplete. Use `\p{Emoji}` instead https://stackoverflow.com/a/64007175/8186898 – Nino Filiu Apr 09 '21 at 08:01

javascript detect if a string contains only unicode emojis

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