slug

What is slug?

The 'slug' npm package is a utility for creating URL-friendly slugs from strings. It converts strings into a format that can be safely used in URLs by removing or replacing special characters, spaces, and other non-URL-safe characters.

What are slug's main functionalities?

Basic Slug Creation

This feature allows you to create a basic slug from a string. It converts the string to lowercase and replaces spaces and special characters with hyphens.

const slug = require('slug');
const title = 'Hello World!';
const urlSlug = slug(title);
console.log(urlSlug); // Output: 'hello-world'

Custom Separator

This feature allows you to specify a custom separator instead of the default hyphen. In this example, underscores are used as separators.

const slug = require('slug');
const title = 'Hello World!';
const urlSlug = slug(title, { replacement: '_' });
console.log(urlSlug); // Output: 'hello_world'

Remove Special Characters

This feature automatically removes special characters from the string, making it URL-safe.

const slug = require('slug');
const title = 'Hello, World!';
const urlSlug = slug(title);
console.log(urlSlug); // Output: 'hello-world'

Multi-language Support

This feature supports multiple languages, converting non-Latin characters to their Latin equivalents.

const slug = require('slug');
const title = '你好，世界';
const urlSlug = slug(title);
console.log(urlSlug); // Output: 'ni-hao-shi-jie'

Other packages similar to slug

speakingurl

The 'speakingurl' package is another utility for creating slugs from strings. It offers more customization options, such as transliteration, custom character maps, and support for multiple languages. Compared to 'slug', 'speakingurl' provides more flexibility and control over the slug generation process.

slugify

The 'slugify' package is a straightforward utility for converting strings into URL-friendly slugs. It is similar to 'slug' but focuses on simplicity and ease of use. 'slugify' is a good choice if you need a lightweight solution without many configuration options.

url-slug

The 'url-slug' package provides a simple way to create URL-friendly slugs from strings. It offers basic functionality similar to 'slug', with options for custom separators and character replacement. 'url-slug' is a good alternative if you need a minimalistic approach to slug generation.

README

slug

Slugifies strings, even when they contain Unicode.

Make strings URL-safe.

• Respects RFC 3986
• No dependencies
• Works in the browser or in Node.js

npm install slug

If you are using TypeScript you can install the accompanying types

npm install --save-dev @types/slug

Example

import slug from 'slug'
var print = console.log.bind(console, '>')

print(slug('i love unicode'))
// > i-love-unicode

print(slug('i love unicode', '_')) // If you prefer something else than `-` as separator
// > i_love_unicode

slug.charmap['♥'] = 'freaking love' // change default charmap or use option {charmap:{…}} as 2. argument
print(slug('I ♥ UNICODE'))
// > i-freaking-love-unicode

// To reset modifications to slug.charmap, use slug.reset():
slug.reset()
print(slug('I ♥ UNICODE'))
// > i-unicode

print(slug('Telephone-Number')) // lower case by default
// > telephone-number

print(slug('Telephone-Number', {lower: false})) // If you want to preserve case
// > Telephone-Number

// We try to provide sensible defaults.
// So Cyrillic text will be transliterated as if it were Russian:
print(slug('маленький подъезд'))
// > malenkij-poduezd

// But maybe you know it's Bulgarian:
print(slug('маленький подъезд', { locale: 'bg' }))
// > malenykiy-podaezd

// To set the default locale:
slug.setLocale('bg')
print(slug('маленький подъезд'))
// > malenykiy-podaezd

print(slug('unicode is ☢'))
// > unicode-is

slug.extend({'☢': 'radioactive'})
print(slug('unicode ♥ is ☢'))
// > unicode-is-radioactive

// slug.extend() modifies the default charmap for the entire process.
// If you need to reset charmap, multicharmap, and the default locale, use slug.reset():

slug.reset()
print(slug('unicode ♥ is ☢'))
// > unicode-is

// Custom removal of characters from resulting slug. Let's say that we want to
// remove all numbers for some reason.
print(slug('one 1 two 2 three 3'))
// > one-1-two-2-three-3
print(slug('one 1 two 2 three 3', { remove: /[0-9]/g }))
// > one-two-three

options

// options is either object or replacement (sets options.replacement)
slug('string', [{options} || 'replacement']);

slug.defaults.mode ='pretty';
slug.defaults.modes['rfc3986'] = {
    replacement: '-',      // replace spaces with replacement
    remove: null,          // (optional) regex to remove characters
    lower: true,           // result in lower case
    charmap: slug.charmap, // replace special characters
    multicharmap: slug.multicharmap, // replace multiple code unit characters
    trim: true,             // trim leading and trailing replacement chars
    fallback: true          // use base64 to generate slug for empty results
};
slug.defaults.modes['pretty'] = {
    replacement: '-',
    remove: null,
    lower: false,
    charmap: slug.charmap,
    multicharmap: slug.multicharmap,
    trim: true,
    fallback: true
};

Differences between slug and slugify packages

Here are some key differences between this package and slugify.

• Stability: slug is ESM-only.
  slugify supports CommonJS and ESM.
• Defaults: slug has the lower option enabled by default, lowercasing all slugs ('On SALE' becomes 'on-sale').
  slugify has the lower option disabled by default ('On SALE' becomes 'On-SALE').
• Symbols: slug removes unrecognized symbols ('$100' becomes '100', '<5' becomes '5', etc.).
  slugify maps them to words ('$100' becomes 'dollar100', '<5' becomes 'less5', etc.).
• Empty Output: slug will return a short, predictable hash (' ' becomes 'icag' and '🎉' becomes '8joiq').
  slugify will return an empty string (' ' and '🎉' become '').

Playground

A (painfully minimal) web playground is available at https://trott.github.io/slug/. It doesn't allow you to specify options, so it's utility is minimal. Pull requests welcome to add the ability to specify options.

There is also a (similarly minimal) CLI tool available via npx slug. As with the web playground, it doesn't allow you to specify options, so it's utility is minimal.