Unicode character lookup
Paste a character or a whole text and get one line per character with its U+ code point, how it is stored in UTF-8 and UTF-16, how to escape it in JavaScript and HTML, and its Unicode general category.
Runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to use it
- Type or paste text. Each character, counted by code point, gets one line.
- Read the line left to right: the character, its code point, UTF-8 bytes, UTF-16 units, JS escape, HTML numeric reference, general category and, when known, its name.
- Invisible characters such as spaces, line breaks and joiners are shown with a visible stand-in symbol.
How it works
The text is walked one code point at a time. Bytes come from the browser’s UTF-8 encoder, UTF-16 units from the string itself, and the category from testing the character against each general category with a Unicode property regular expression. A visible letter made of several code points, such as a letter plus a combining accent, shows one line for each part.
Worked example
The euro sign has the code point U+20AC (8364). In UTF-8 it takes three bytes, E2 82 AC; in UTF-16 one unit, 20AC. In JavaScript it is €, in HTML €, and its category is Sc, currency symbol.
Tips
Use this to find the invisible character that breaks a string comparison, such as a no-break space (U+00A0) or a zero width space (U+200B). Up to 2,000 characters are shown at once.
Frequently asked questions
What is a code point?
A code point is the number Unicode gives to a character, written U+ and at least four hex digits, such as U+0041 for A. Code points run from U+0000 to U+10FFFF. How they are stored as bytes depends on the encoding.
Why does an emoji have two UTF-16 units?
UTF-16 stores code points above U+FFFF as a surrogate pair of two 16-bit units. U+1F600 becomes D83D DE00. This is why the JavaScript length of such a character is 2, and why the escape is written \u{1F600}.
What do the general category codes mean?
They come from the Unicode Character Database: Lu uppercase letter, Ll lowercase letter, Nd decimal digit, Po other punctuation, Sc currency symbol, So other symbol, Zs space, Cc control character and so on. The tool tests each character with the \p{…} property of JavaScript regular expressions.
Does this show the official character names?
Only for a small built-in set, such as invisible characters, common symbols and the ASCII letters, digits and punctuation. Other characters have no name here because a full name database would be large; their code point lets you look the name up elsewhere.