@sindresorhus/transliterate

What is @sindresorhus/transliterate?

@sindresorhus/transliterate is an npm package that provides functionality to transliterate Unicode strings into ASCII. This is particularly useful for converting non-Latin scripts into a Latin-based alphabet, making the text easier to read and process in various applications.

What are @sindresorhus/transliterate's main functionalities?

Basic Transliteration

This feature allows you to transliterate a given Unicode string into its ASCII representation. In this example, the Chinese characters '你好' are transliterated to 'Ni Hao'.

const transliterate = require('@sindresorhus/transliterate');
console.log(transliterate('你好')); // Output: 'Ni Hao'

Custom Replacement Map

This feature allows you to provide a custom replacement map for specific characters. In this example, the custom map is used to transliterate '你好' to 'Nǐ Hǎo' instead of the default 'Ni Hao'.

const transliterate = require('@sindresorhus/transliterate');
const customMap = { '你': 'Nǐ', '好': 'Hǎo' };
console.log(transliterate('你好', { customReplacements: customMap })); // Output: 'Nǐ Hǎo'

Slugify

This feature allows you to create URL-friendly slugs from Unicode strings. In this example, the string '你好, 世界!' is transliterated and slugified to 'ni-hao-shi-jie'.

const transliterate = require('@sindresorhus/transliterate');
console.log(transliterate.slugify('你好, 世界!')); // Output: 'ni-hao-shi-jie'

Other packages similar to @sindresorhus/transliterate

transliteration

The 'transliteration' package provides similar functionality for converting Unicode strings to ASCII. It also supports custom replacement maps and slugification. Compared to @sindresorhus/transliterate, it offers a more extensive set of default transliterations and additional configuration options.

unidecode

The 'unidecode' package is another alternative for transliterating Unicode strings to ASCII. It is based on the Python Unidecode library and provides a straightforward way to convert non-Latin scripts. While it is effective, it may not offer as much customization as @sindresorhus/transliterate.

slugify

The 'slugify' package focuses on creating URL-friendly slugs from strings, including Unicode strings. It provides a range of options for customization and is highly performant. While it specializes in slug creation, it may not offer the same level of general transliteration functionality as @sindresorhus/transliterate.

README

transliterate

Convert Unicode characters to Latin characters using transliteration

Can be useful for slugification purposes and other times you cannot use Unicode.

Install

$ npm install @sindresorhus/transliterate

Usage

const transliterate = require('@sindresorhus/transliterate');

transliterate('Fußgängerübergänge');
//=> 'Fussgaengeruebergaenge'

transliterate('Я люблю единорогов');
//=> 'Ya lyublyu edinorogov'

transliterate('أنا أحب حيدات');
//=> 'ana ahb hydat'

transliterate('tôi yêu những chú kỳ lân');
//=> 'toi yeu nhung chu ky lan'

API

transliterate(string, options?)

string

Type: string

String to transliterate.

options

Type: object

customReplacements

Type: Array<string[]>
Default: []

Add your own custom replacements.

The replacements are run on the original string before any other transformations.

This only overrides a default replacement if you set an item with the same key.

const transliterate = require('@sindresorhus/transliterate');

transliterate('Я люблю единорогов', {
	customReplacements: [
		['единорогов', '🦄']
	]
})
//=> 'Ya lyublyu 🦄'

Supported languages

Most major languages are supported.

This includes special handling for:

• Arabic
• Armenian
• Czech
• Danish
• Dhivehi
• Georgian
• German (umlauts)
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Latin
• Latvian
• Lithuanian
• Macedonian
• Pashto
• Persian
• Polish
• Romanian
• Russian
• Serbian
• Slovak
• Swedish
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Urdu
• Vietnamese

However, Chinese is currently not supported.

Related

• slugify - Slugify a string