Is there still no easy way to split strings with compound emojis into an array?

Question

There are many good (and bad) ways to split a string into an array in JavaScript.

E.g. in ES6 by just using the spread operator:

let str = "example 1";
let arr = [...str];
console.log(arr); 
// ['e', 'x', 'a', 'm', 'p', 'l', 'e', ' ', '1']

A lot of them still work when there is an emoji included

let str = "example 2 ";
let arr = [...str];
console.log(arr); 
//  ['e', 'x', 'a', 'm', 'p', 'l', 'e', ' ', '2', ' ', '']

However all solutions I found so far (e.g. 1, 2) fail if there are compound emojis in the string

let str = "example 3 ‍♀️ ‍‍‍";
let arr = [...str];
console.log(arr); 
// ['e', 'x', 'a', 'm', 'p', 'l', 'e', ' ', '3', ' ', '', '‍', '♀', '️', ' ', '', '‍', '', '‍', '', '‍', '']

There is grapheme-splitter, but this has not been updated in years. Also, I would prefer finding a way without needing to include external libraries/packages.

This approach detects (many, not all) compound emojis correct, but does not separate the text parts. (And I do not understand how it works yet, so I could adjust it.)

let str = "example 3 ‍♀️ ‍‍‍";
  let regex = /([\uD800-\uDBFF][\uDC00-\uDFFF](?:[\u200D\uFE0F][\uD800-\uDBFF][\uDC00-\uDFFF]){2,}|\uD83D\uDC69(?:\u200D(?:(?:\uD83D\uDC69\u200D)?\uD83D\uDC67|(?:\uD83D\uDC69\u200D)?\uD83D\uDC66)|\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])|\uD83D\uDC69\u200D(?:\uD83D\uDC69\u200D)?\uD83D\uDC66\u200D\uD83D\uDC66|\uD83D\uDC69\u200D(?:\uD83D\uDC69\u200D)?\uD83D\uDC67\u200D(?:\uD83D[\uDC66\uDC67])|\uD83C\uDFF3\uFE0F\u200D\uD83C\uDF08|(?:\uD83C[\uDFC3\uDFC4\uDFCA]|\uD83D[\uDC6E\uDC71\uDC73\uDC77\uDC81\uDC82\uDC86\uDC87\uDE45-\uDE47\uDE4B\uDE4D\uDE4E\uDEA3\uDEB4-\uDEB6]|\uD83E[\uDD26\uDD37-\uDD39\uDD3D\uDD3E\uDDD6-\uDDDD])(?:\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])\u200D[\u2640\u2642]\uFE0F|\uD83D\uDC69(?:\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])\u200D(?:\uD83C[\uDF3E\uDF73\uDF93\uDFA4\uDFA8\uDFEB\uDFED]|\uD83D[\uDCBB\uDCBC\uDD27\uDD2C\uDE80\uDE92])|(?:\uD83C[\uDFC3\uDFC4\uDFCA]|\uD83D[\uDC6E\uDC6F\uDC71\uDC73\uDC77\uDC81\uDC82\uDC86\uDC87\uDE45-\uDE47\uDE4B\uDE4D\uDE4E\uDEA3\uDEB4-\uDEB6]|\uD83E[\uDD26\uDD37-\uDD39\uDD3C-\uDD3E\uDDD6-\uDDDF])\u200D[\u2640\u2642]\uFE0F|\uD83C\uDDFD\uD83C\uDDF0|\uD83C\uDDF6\uD83C\uDDE6|\uD83C\uDDF4\uD83C\uDDF2|\uD83C\uDDE9(?:\uD83C[\uDDEA\uDDEC\uDDEF\uDDF0\uDDF2\uDDF4\uDDFF])|\uD83C\uDDF7(?:\uD83C[\uDDEA\uDDF4\uDDF8\uDDFA\uDDFC])|\uD83C\uDDE8(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6\uDDE8\uDDE9\uDDEB-\uDDEE\uDDF0-\uDDF5\uDDF7\uDDFA-\uDDFF])|(?:\u26F9|\uD83C[\uDFCB\uDFCC]|\uD83D\uDD75)(?:\uFE0F\u200D[\u2640\u2642]|(?:\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])\u200D[\u2640\u2642])\uFE0F|(?:\uD83D\uDC41\uFE0F\u200D\uD83D\uDDE8|\uD83D\uDC69(?:\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])\u200D[\u2695\u2696\u2708]|\uD83D\uDC69\u200D[\u2695\u2696\u2708]|\uD83D\uDC68(?:(?:\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])\u200D[\u2695\u2696\u2708]|\u200D[\u2695\u2696\u2708]))\uFE0F|\uD83C\uDDF2(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6\uDDE8-\uDDED\uDDF0-\uDDFF])|\uD83D\uDC69\u200D(?:\uD83C[\uDF3E\uDF73\uDF93\uDFA4\uDFA8\uDFEB\uDFED]|\uD83D[\uDCBB\uDCBC\uDD27\uDD2C\uDE80\uDE92]|\u2764\uFE0F\u200D(?:\uD83D\uDC8B\u200D(?:\uD83D[\uDC68\uDC69])|\uD83D[\uDC68\uDC69]))|\uD83C\uDDF1(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6-\uDDE8\uDDEE\uDDF0\uDDF7-\uDDFB\uDDFE])|\uD83C\uDDEF(?:\uD83C[\uDDEA\uDDF2\uDDF4\uDDF5])|\uD83C\uDDED(?:\uD83C[\uDDF0\uDDF2\uDDF3\uDDF7\uDDF9\uDDFA])|\uD83C\uDDEB(?:\uD83C[\uDDEE-\uDDF0\uDDF2\uDDF4\uDDF7])|[#\*0-9]\uFE0F\u20E3|\uD83C\uDDE7(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6\uDDE7\uDDE9-\uDDEF\uDDF1-\uDDF4\uDDF6-\uDDF9\uDDFB\uDDFC\uDDFE\uDDFF])|\uD83C\uDDE6(?:\uD83C[\uDDE8-\uDDEC\uDDEE\uDDF1\uDDF2\uDDF4\uDDF6-\uDDFA\uDDFC\uDDFD\uDDFF])|\uD83C\uDDFF(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6\uDDF2\uDDFC])|\uD83C\uDDF5(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6\uDDEA-\uDDED\uDDF0-\uDDF3\uDDF7-\uDDF9\uDDFC\uDDFE])|\uD83C\uDDFB(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6\uDDE8\uDDEA\uDDEC\uDDEE\uDDF3\uDDFA])|\uD83C\uDDF3(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6\uDDE8\uDDEA-\uDDEC\uDDEE\uDDF1\uDDF4\uDDF5\uDDF7\uDDFA\uDDFF])|\uD83C\uDFF4\uDB40\uDC67\uDB40\uDC62(?:\uDB40\uDC77\uDB40\uDC6C\uDB40\uDC73|\uDB40\uDC73\uDB40\uDC63\uDB40\uDC74|\uDB40\uDC65\uDB40\uDC6E\uDB40\uDC67)\uDB40\uDC7F|\uD83D\uDC68(?:\u200D(?:\u2764\uFE0F\u200D(?:\uD83D\uDC8B\u200D)?\uD83D\uDC68|(?:(?:\uD83D[\uDC68\uDC69])\u200D)?\uD83D\uDC66\u200D\uD83D\uDC66|(?:(?:\uD83D[\uDC68\uDC69])\u200D)?\uD83D\uDC67\u200D(?:\uD83D[\uDC66\uDC67])|\uD83C[\uDF3E\uDF73\uDF93\uDFA4\uDFA8\uDFEB\uDFED]|\uD83D[\uDCBB\uDCBC\uDD27\uDD2C\uDE80\uDE92])|(?:\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])\u200D(?:\uD83C[\uDF3E\uDF73\uDF93\uDFA4\uDFA8\uDFEB\uDFED]|\uD83D[\uDCBB\uDCBC\uDD27\uDD2C\uDE80\uDE92]))|\uD83C\uDDF8(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6-\uDDEA\uDDEC-\uDDF4\uDDF7-\uDDF9\uDDFB\uDDFD-\uDDFF])|\uD83C\uDDF0(?:\uD83C[\uDDEA\uDDEC-\uDDEE\uDDF2\uDDF3\uDDF5\uDDF7\uDDFC\uDDFE\uDDFF])|\uD83C\uDDFE(?:\uD83C[\uDDEA\uDDF9])|\uD83C\uDDEE(?:\uD83C[\uDDE8-\uDDEA\uDDF1-\uDDF4\uDDF6-\uDDF9])|\uD83C\uDDF9(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6\uDDE8\uDDE9\uDDEB-\uDDED\uDDEF-\uDDF4\uDDF7\uDDF9\uDDFB\uDDFC\uDDFF])|\uD83C\uDDEC(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6\uDDE7\uDDE9-\uDDEE\uDDF1-\uDDF3\uDDF5-\uDDFA\uDDFC\uDDFE])|\uD83C\uDDFA(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6\uDDEC\uDDF2\uDDF3\uDDF8\uDDFE\uDDFF])|\uD83C\uDDEA(?:\uD83C[\uDDE6\uDDE8\uDDEA\uDDEC\uDDED\uDDF7-\uDDFA])|\uD83C\uDDFC(?:\uD83C[\uDDEB\uDDF8])|(?:\u26F9|\uD83C[\uDFCB\uDFCC]|\uD83D\uDD75)(?:\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])|(?:\uD83C[\uDFC3\uDFC4\uDFCA]|\uD83D[\uDC6E\uDC71\uDC73\uDC77\uDC81\uDC82\uDC86\uDC87\uDE45-\uDE47\uDE4B\uDE4D\uDE4E\uDEA3\uDEB4-\uDEB6]|\uD83E[\uDD26\uDD37-\uDD39\uDD3D\uDD3E\uDDD6-\uDDDD])(?:\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])|(?:[\u261D\u270A-\u270D]|\uD83C[\uDF85\uDFC2\uDFC7]|\uD83D[\uDC42\uDC43\uDC46-\uDC50\uDC66\uDC67\uDC70\uDC72\uDC74-\uDC76\uDC78\uDC7C\uDC83\uDC85\uDCAA\uDD74\uDD7A\uDD90\uDD95\uDD96\uDE4C\uDE4F\uDEC0\uDECC]|\uD83E[\uDD18-\uDD1C\uDD1E\uDD1F\uDD30-\uDD36\uDDD1-\uDDD5])(?:\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])|\uD83D\uDC68(?:\u200D(?:(?:(?:\uD83D[\uDC68\uDC69])\u200D)?\uD83D\uDC67|(?:(?:\uD83D[\uDC68\uDC69])\u200D)?\uD83D\uDC66)|\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])|(?:[\u261D\u26F9\u270A-\u270D]|\uD83C[\uDF85\uDFC2-\uDFC4\uDFC7\uDFCA-\uDFCC]|\uD83D[\uDC42\uDC43\uDC46-\uDC50\uDC66-\uDC69\uDC6E\uDC70-\uDC78\uDC7C\uDC81-\uDC83\uDC85-\uDC87\uDCAA\uDD74\uDD75\uDD7A\uDD90\uDD95\uDD96\uDE45-\uDE47\uDE4B-\uDE4F\uDEA3\uDEB4-\uDEB6\uDEC0\uDECC]|\uD83E[\uDD18-\uDD1C\uDD1E\uDD1F\uDD26\uDD30-\uDD39\uDD3D\uDD3E\uDDD1-\uDDDD])(?:\uD83C[\uDFFB-\uDFFF])?|(?:[\u231A\u231B\u23E9-\u23EC\u23F0\u23F3\u25FD\u25FE\u2614\u2615\u2648-\u2653\u267F\u2693\u26A1\u26AA\u26AB\u26BD\u26BE\u26C4\u26C5\u26CE\u26D4\u26EA\u26F2\u26F3\u26F5\u26FA\u26FD\u2705\u270A\u270B\u2728\u274C\u274E\u2753-\u2755\u2757\u2795-\u2797\u27B0\u27BF\u2B1B\u2B1C\u2B50\u2B55]|\uD83C[\uDC04\uDCCF\uDD8E\uDD91-\uDD9A\uDDE6-\uDDFF\uDE01\uDE1A\uDE2F\uDE32-\uDE36\uDE38-\uDE3A\uDE50\uDE51\uDF00-\uDF20\uDF2D-\uDF35\uDF37-\uDF7C\uDF7E-\uDF93\uDFA0-\uDFCA\uDFCF-\uDFD3\uDFE0-\uDFF0\uDFF4\uDFF8-\uDFFF]|\uD83D[\uDC00-\uDC3E\uDC40\uDC42-\uDCFC\uDCFF-\uDD3D\uDD4B-\uDD4E\uDD50-\uDD67\uDD7A\uDD95\uDD96\uDDA4\uDDFB-\uDE4F\uDE80-\uDEC5\uDECC\uDED0-\uDED2\uDEEB\uDEEC\uDEF4-\uDEF8]|\uD83E[\uDD10-\uDD3A\uDD3C-\uDD3E\uDD40-\uDD45\uDD47-\uDD4C\uDD50-\uDD6B\uDD80-\uDD97\uDDC0\uDDD0-\uDDE6])|(?:[#\*0-9\xA9\xAE\u203C\u2049\u2122\u2139\u2194-\u2199\u21A9\u21AA\u231A\u231B\u2328\u23CF\u23E9-\u23F3\u23F8-\u23FA\u24C2\u25AA\u25AB\u25B6\u25C0\u25FB-\u25FE\u2600-\u2604\u260E\u2611\u2614\u2615\u2618\u261D\u2620\u2622\u2623\u2626\u262A\u262E\u262F\u2638-\u263A\u2640\u2642\u2648-\u2653\u2660\u2663\u2665\u2666\u2668\u267B\u267F\u2692-\u2697\u2699\u269B\u269C\u26A0\u26A1\u26AA\u26AB\u26B0\u26B1\u26BD\u26BE\u26C4\u26C5\u26C8\u26CE\u26CF\u26D1\u26D3\u26D4\u26E9\u26EA\u26F0-\u26F5\u26F7-\u26FA\u26FD\u2702\u2705\u2708-\u270D\u270F\u2712\u2714\u2716\u271D\u2721\u2728\u2733\u2734\u2744\u2747\u274C\u274E\u2753-\u2755\u2757\u2763\u2764\u2795-\u2797\u27A1\u27B0\u27BF\u2934\u2935\u2B05-\u2B07\u2B1B\u2B1C\u2B50\u2B55\u3030\u303D\u3297\u3299]|\uD83C[\uDC04\uDCCF\uDD70\uDD71\uDD7E\uDD7F\uDD8E\uDD91-\uDD9A\uDDE6-\uDDFF\uDE01\uDE02\uDE1A\uDE2F\uDE32-\uDE3A\uDE50\uDE51\uDF00-\uDF21\uDF24-\uDF93\uDF96\uDF97\uDF99-\uDF9B\uDF9E-\uDFF0\uDFF3-\uDFF5\uDFF7-\uDFFF]|\uD83D[\uDC00-\uDCFD\uDCFF-\uDD3D\uDD49-\uDD4E\uDD50-\uDD67\uDD6F\uDD70\uDD73-\uDD7A\uDD87\uDD8A-\uDD8D\uDD90\uDD95\uDD96\uDDA4\uDDA5\uDDA8\uDDB1\uDDB2\uDDBC\uDDC2-\uDDC4\uDDD1-\uDDD3\uDDDC-\uDDDE\uDDE1\uDDE3\uDDE8\uDDEF\uDDF3\uDDFA-\uDE4F\uDE80-\uDEC5\uDECB-\uDED2\uDEE0-\uDEE5\uDEE9\uDEEB\uDEEC\uDEF0\uDEF3-\uDEF8]|\uD83E[\uDD10-\uDD3A\uDD3C-\uDD3E\uDD40-\uDD45\uDD47-\uDD4C\uDD50-\uDD6B\uDD80-\uDD97\uDDC0\uDDD0-\uDDE6])\uFE0F)/;
  let arr = str.split(regex).filter(Boolean);
  console.log(arr); // ['example 3 ', '‍♀️', ' ', '‍‍‍']

And it is pretty "ugly" imho. Maybe this could be made prettier by using Emoji Properties?

Since emojis are ubiquitous nowadays, I feel like there must be an easy way to split strings with compound emojis into an array.

Blame unicode for having become so ridiculously convoluted - it started good, then people wanted this, and oh that, and oh everything, plus 48337 variations to make it nice and equal for the new ideologies. Now we have zero width joiners, diacritics with different normalizations, variation selectors, all on top of what was already much to handle (i mean things like right-to-left order marks, zalgo, etc) — ASDFGerte, Dec 29 '21 at 20:47
Do you care only about emojis? Or really want your code to split *all* graphemes? — Bergi, Dec 29 '21 at 21:07
"*I feel like there must be an easy way*" - sorry to disappoint your feelings. Popularity and ubiquity has nothing to do with sensible APIs. — Bergi, Dec 29 '21 at 21:11
@jost21 what about '‍️' that's the [very first sequence from the unicode list](https://unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-zwj-sequences.html#1f636_200d_1f32b_fe0f) and in my browser it's not combined. I think the issue already starts with the words "Recommended Sequences" and "fallback". So a "solution" would have to go and check each sequence if it is supported or not; on the client. — Thomas, Dec 29 '21 at 21:15
@Bergi I guess both ;) I need to split up "text message" like strings. So it would be great if it splits everything that is displayed as 1 character into 1 array element. However I would be happy with just emojis and the characters/symbols on an English keyboard (my feelings were already disappointed by researching this ;)) — jost21, Dec 29 '21 at 21:16

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 29 '21 at 21:39

There is no short solution code for this, as Unicode has become more and more complex. You can look at what unicode.org itself is providing as EBNF and Regex. At the time of writing, it reads:

Regex

\p{RI} \p{RI} 
| \p{Emoji} 
  ( \p{EMod} 
  | \x{FE0F} \x{20E3}? 
  | [\x{E0020}-\x{E007E}]+ \x{E007F} )?
  (\x{200D} \p{Emoji}
    ( \p{EMod} 
    | \x{FE0F} \x{20E3}? 
    | [\x{E0020}-\x{E007E}]+ \x{E007F} )?
  )*

Translated to JavaScript that regular expression is:

/\p{RI}\p{RI}|\p{Emoji}(\p{EMod}|\u{FE0F}\u{20E3}?|[\u{E0020}-\u{E007E}]+\u{E007F})?(\u{200D}\p{Emoji}(\p{EMod}|\u{FE0F}\u{20E3}?|[\u{E0020}-\u{E007E}]+\u{E007F})?)*/gu

If you also want to match any other character, then just append |. to the regex, and add the s modifier so that the dot wildcard also matches new line characters.

With your input example:

let regex = /\p{RI}\p{RI}|\p{Emoji}(\p{EMod}|\u{FE0F}\u{20E3}?|[\u{E0020}-\u{E007E}]+\u{E007F})?(\u{200D}\p{Emoji}(\p{EMod}|\u{FE0F}\u{20E3}?|[\u{E0020}-\u{E007E}]+\u{E007F})?)*|./gus;

let str = "example 3 ‍♀️ ‍‍‍";

document.write('<pre>'+str.match(regex).join('\n'));

^{NB: I had to use document.write instead of console.log here, because the console implementation provided by Stack Snippets is not up to the task.}

Now, there is some criticism to this regular expression, which has resulted in many different flavours. For instance, in this answer, the following adaptation and extension is proposed to deal with some problems:

/\p{RI}\p{RI}|\p{Emoji}(\p{EMod}+|\u{FE0F}\u{20E3}?|[\u{E0020}-\u{E007E}]+\u{E007F})?(\u{200D}\p{Emoji}(\p{EMod}+|\u{FE0F}\u{20E3}?|[\u{E0020}-\u{E007E}]+\u{E007F})?)+|\p{EPres}(\p{EMod}+|\u{FE0F}\u{20E3}?|[\u{E0020}-\u{E007E}]+\u{E007F})?|\p{Emoji}(\p{EMod}+|\u{FE0F}\u{20E3}?|[\u{E0020}-\u{E007E}]+\u{E007F})/gu

Again, you can just append |. to the regex (and add the s modifier) to make it match normal characters as well.

Oh right, hooray for [unicode property escapes in regular expressions](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions/Unicode_Property_Escapes)! — Bergi, Dec 29 '21 at 21:37
Awesome! This is exactly what I was looking for (I use `let arr = str.match(regex)` with it to get the array). — jost21, Dec 30 '21 at 11:58
When I use it on a simple script it works perfectly, however when I include it in the project, I get a babel error (`Module parse failed: Invalid regular expression`) I found that this bit `\p{EMod}` is the problem. Fortunately it seems to still work for my purposes when I remove all the `\p{EMod}|` from the regex. Not sure what other effects this change might have and the babel issue is probably beyond the scope of this question, but I wanted to mention it for the sake of documentation. — jost21, Dec 30 '21 at 12:03
OK, so you are transpiling code with babel, and it is not up to date with the latest additions to the JavaScript language. `\p{Emod}` is short for `\p{Emoji_Modifier}` (you could try that). If that fails, then see at [unicode.org](https://www.unicode.org/Public/emoji/14.0/emoji-sequences.txt) what sequences it represents. — trincot, Dec 30 '21 at 12:22
On spot :) I'm just working on the project and have not that much influence on the build process. But using `\p{Emoji_Modifier}` did the trick. I also found out what was missing without `\p{Emod}` (emojis with skin tones were not recognized properly). — jost21, Dec 30 '21 at 14:57
I think your first regex is better the second one does not match — bormat, Jan 02 '23 at 12:45

Is there still no easy way to split strings with compound emojis into an array?

1 Answers1

Regex

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