Why can't I use accented characters next to a word boundary?
JavaScript's regex implementation is not Unicode-aware. It only knows the ‘word characters’ in standard low-byte ASCII, which does not include é or any other accented or non-English letters.
Because é is not a word character to JS, é followed by a space can never be considered a word boundary. (It would match \b if used in the middle of a word, like Namés.)
/([\s.,!?])(fancy namé|namé)([\s.,!?]|$)/
Yeah, that would be the usual workaround for JS (though probably with more punctuation characters). For other languages you'd generally use lookahead/lookbehind to avoid matching the pre and post boundary characters, but these are poorly supported/buggy in JS so best avoided.
Rob is correct. Quoted from the ECMAScript 3rd edition:
15.10.2.6 Assertion:
The production Assertion
\bevaluates by ...2. Call IsWordChar(e−1) and let a be the boolean result
3. Call IsWordChar(e) and let b be the boolean result
and
The internal helper function IsWordChar ... performs the following:
3. If c is one of the sixty-three characters in the table below, return true.
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 _
Since é is not one of these 63 characters, the location between é and a will be considered a word boundary.
If you know the class of characters, you may use a negative look-forward assertion, e.g.
/(^|[^\wÀ-ÖØ-öø-ſ])(Fancy Namé|Namé)(?![\wÀ-ÖØ-öø-ſ])/
Know Your Boundaries
Unfortunately, even if and when Javascript should someday come to have full and proper support for Unicode, you will still have to be exquisitely careful with word boundaries. It’s easy to misunderstand what a \b really does.
Here is Perl code that explains what \b is really doing, which is true no matter whether your pattern engine has been BNM-upgraded yet:
# if next is word char:
# then last isn't word
# else last isn't nonword
$word_boundary_before = qr{ (?(?= \w ) (?<! \w ) | (?<! \W ) ) }x;
# if last is word:
# then next isn't word
# else next isn't nonword
$word_boundary_after = qr{ (?(?<= \w ) (?! \w ) | (?! \W ) ) }x;
The first is like a \b before something, and the second is like a \b after it. The construct used is the regex “IF-THEN=ELSE” conditional, which is of the general form (?(COND)THEN|ELSE). Here I’m using a COND test that’s a lookahead in the first case but a lookahead in the second one. The THEN and ELSE clauses in both cases are negated lookarounds so that they take the edge of the string into account.
I explain more about dealing with boundaries and Unicode in regular expressions here.
Unicode Property Support
The current state of affairs in Javascript’s treatment of Unicode seems to be that like Java, Javascript’s definitions of \w and such are still crippled by being stuck back in the 1960s world of ASCII. This is just a miserable situation, I admit. Even Python, which is pretty conservative as these things go (for example, it doesn’t even support recursive regexes), does allow its definitions of \w and \s to work on Unicode correctly. That’s the barest minimum level of functionality, really.
It is both better and worse in Javasscript. That’s bcecause you can use a few of the very most basic of Unicode properties in Javascript (or Java). It looks like you should be able to use the one- and two-character “General Category” Unicode properties. That means you should be able to use the short name versions from the first column below:
Short Name Long Name
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
\pL \p{Letter}
\p{Lu} \p{Uppercase_Letter}
\p{Ll} \p{Lowercase_Letter}
\p{Lt} \p{Titlecase_Letter}
\p{Lm} \p{Modifier_Letter}
\p{Lo} \p{Other_Letter}
Short Name Long Name
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
\pM \p{Mark}
\p{Mn} \p{Nonspacing_Mark}
\p{Mc} \p{Spacing_Mark}
\p{Me} \p{Enclosing_Mark}
Short Name Long Name
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
\pN \p{Number}
\p{Nd} \p{Decimal_Number},\p{Digit}
\p{Nl} \p{Letter_Number}
\p{No} \p{Other_Number}
Short Name Long Name
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
\pP \p{Punctuation}, \p{Punct})
\p{Pc} \p{Connector_Punctuation}
\p{Pd} \p{Dash_Punctuation}
\p{Ps} \p{Open_Punctuation}
\p{Pe} \p{Close_Punctuation}
\p{Pi} \p{Initial_Punctuation}
\p{Pf} \p{Final_Punctuation}
\p{Po} \p{Other_Punctuation}
Short Name Long Name
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
\pS \p{Symbol}
\p{Sm} \p{Math_Symbol}
\p{Sc} \p{Currency_Symbol}
\p{Sk} \p{Modifier_Symbol}
\p{So} \p{Other_Symbol}
Short Name Long Name
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
\pZ \p{Separator}
\p{Zs} \p{Space_Separator}
\p{Zl} \p{Line_Separator}
\p{Zp} \p{Paragraph_Separator}
Short Name Long Name
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
\pC \p{Other}
\p{Cc} \p{Control}, \p{Cntrl}
\p{Cf} \p{Format}
\p{Cs} \p{Surrogate}
\p{Co} \p{Private_Use}
\p{Cn} \p{Unassigned}
You have to use the short names only in Java and Javascript, but Perl lets you use the long names too, which helps for legibilityl the 5.12 release of Perl supports about 3,000 Unicode properties. Python still doesn’t have any Unicode property support worth mentioning, and Ruby is just starting to get it in the 1.9 release. PCRE has some limited support, mostly like Java 1.7’s.
Java6 supports Unicode block properties, like \p{InGeneralPunctuation} or \p{Block=GeneralPunctuation}, and Java7 supports Unicode script properties, like \p{IsHiragana} or \p{Script=Hiragana}.
However, it still doesn’t support anything even close to the full set of Unicode properties, including near-critical ones like \p{WhiteSpace}, \p{Dash}, and \p{Quotation_Mark}, let alone the other two-parters like \p{Line_Break=Alphabetic}, \p{East_Asian_Width:Narrow}, \p{Numeric_Value=1000}, or \p{Age:5.2}.
The former set are pretty indispensable — especially given the lack of support for \s working right — and the latter set are pretty darned useful at times.
Something else that Java and Javascript doesn’t yet support is user-defined character properties. I use those quite a bit. That way you can define things like \p{English::Vowel} or \p{English::Consonant}, which is quite handy.
If you’re interested in Unicode properties for regex work, tou might want to grab the unitrio suite of programs: uniprops, unichars, and uninames. Here’s a demo of each of those three:
$ uninames face
፦ 4966 1366 ETHIOPIC PREFACE COLON
⁙ 8281 2059 FIVE DOT PUNCTUATION
= Greek pentonkion
= quincunx
x (die face-5 - 2684)
∯ 8751 222F SURFACE INTEGRAL
# 222E 222E
☹ 9785 2639 WHITE FROWNING FACE
☺ 9786 263A WHITE SMILING FACE
= have a nice day!
☻ 9787 263B BLACK SMILING FACE
⚀ 9856 2680 DIE FACE-1
⚁ 9857 2681 DIE FACE-2
⚂ 9858 2682 DIE FACE-3
⚃ 9859 2683 DIE FACE-4
⚄ 9860 2684 DIE FACE-5
⚅ 9861 2685 DIE FACE-6
⾯ 12207 2FAF KANGXI RADICAL FACE
# 9762
〠 12320 3020 POSTAL MARK FACE
龜 64206 FACE CJK COMPATIBILITY IDEOGRAPH-FACE
: 9F9C
FMTEYEWTK about Unicode properties:
$ uniprops -va LF 85 Greek:Sigma INFINITY BOM U+3000 U+12345
U+000A ‹U+000A› \N{ LINE FEED (LF) }:
\s \v \R \pC \p{Cc}
\p{All} \p{Any} \p{ASCII} \p{Assigned} \p{C} \p{Other} \p{Cc} \p{Cntrl} \p{Common} \p{Zyyy} \p{Control} \p{Pat_WS} \p{Pattern_White_Space} \p{PatWS} \p{PerlSpace} \p{PosixCntrl} \p{PosixSpace} \p{Space} \p{SpacePerl} \p{VertSpace} \p{White_Space} \p{WSpace}
\p{Age:1.1} \p{Block=Basic_Latin} \p{Bidi_Class:B} \p{Bidi_Class=Paragraph_Separator} \p{Bidi_Class:Paragraph_Separator} \p{Bc=B} \p{Block:ASCII} \p{Block:Basic_Latin} \p{Blk=ASCII} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:0} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class=Not_Reordered}
\p{Canonical_Combining_Class:Not_Reordered} \p{Ccc=NR} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:NR} \p{Script=Common} \p{Decomposition_Type:None} \p{Dt=None} \p{East_Asian_Width=Neutral} \p{East_Asian_Width:Neutral} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:LF} \p{GCB=LF} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:NA}
\p{Hangul_Syllable_Type=Not_Applicable} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:Not_Applicable} \p{Hst=NA} \p{Joining_Group:No_Joining_Group} \p{Jg=NoJoiningGroup} \p{Joining_Type:Non_Joining} \p{Jt=U} \p{Joining_Type:U} \p{Joining_Type=Non_Joining} \p{Line_Break:LF} \p{Line_Break=Line_Feed}
\p{Line_Break:Line_Feed} \p{Lb=LF} \p{Numeric_Type:None} \p{Nt=None} \p{Numeric_Value:NaN} \p{Nv=NaN} \p{Present_In:1.1} \p{Age=1.1} \p{In=1.1} \p{Present_In:2.0} \p{In=2.0} \p{Present_In:2.1} \p{In=2.1} \p{Present_In:3.0} \p{In=3.0} \p{Present_In:3.1} \p{In=3.1}
\p{Present_In:3.2} \p{In=3.2} \p{Present_In:4.0} \p{In=4.0} \p{Present_In:4.1} \p{In=4.1} \p{Present_In:5.0} \p{In=5.0} \p{Present_In:5.1} \p{In=5.1} \p{Present_In:5.2} \p{In=5.2} \p{Script:Common} \p{Sc=Zyyy} \p{Script:Zyyy} \p{Sentence_Break:LF} \p{SB=LF} \p{Word_Break:LF}
\p{WB=LF}
U+0085 ‹U+0085› \N{ NEXT LINE (NEL) }:
\s \v \R \pC \p{Cc}
\p{All} \p{Any} \p{Assigned} \p{InLatin1} \p{C} \p{Other} \p{Cc} \p{Cntrl} \p{Common} \p{Zyyy} \p{Control} \p{Pat_WS} \p{Pattern_White_Space} \p{PatWS} \p{Space} \p{SpacePerl} \p{VertSpace} \p{White_Space} \p{WSpace}
\p{Age:1.1} \p{Bidi_Class:B} \p{Bidi_Class=Paragraph_Separator} \p{Bidi_Class:Paragraph_Separator} \p{Bc=B} \p{Block:Latin_1} \p{Block=Latin_1_Supplement} \p{Block:Latin_1_Supplement} \p{Blk=Latin1} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:0} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class=Not_Reordered}
\p{Canonical_Combining_Class:Not_Reordered} \p{Ccc=NR} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:NR} \p{Script=Common} \p{Decomposition_Type:None} \p{Dt=None} \p{East_Asian_Width=Neutral} \p{East_Asian_Width:Neutral} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:CN} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break=Control}
\p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:Control} \p{GCB=CN} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:NA} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type=Not_Applicable} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:Not_Applicable} \p{Hst=NA} \p{Joining_Group:No_Joining_Group} \p{Jg=NoJoiningGroup} \p{Joining_Type:Non_Joining} \p{Jt=U}
\p{Joining_Type:U} \p{Joining_Type=Non_Joining} \p{Line_Break:Next_Line} \p{Lb=NL} \p{Line_Break:NL} \p{Line_Break=Next_Line} \p{Numeric_Type:None} \p{Nt=None} \p{Numeric_Value:NaN} \p{Nv=NaN} \p{Present_In:1.1} \p{Age=1.1} \p{In=1.1} \p{Present_In:2.0} \p{In=2.0}
\p{Present_In:2.1} \p{In=2.1} \p{Present_In:3.0} \p{In=3.0} \p{Present_In:3.1} \p{In=3.1} \p{Present_In:3.2} \p{In=3.2} \p{Present_In:4.0} \p{In=4.0} \p{Present_In:4.1} \p{In=4.1} \p{Present_In:5.0} \p{In=5.0} \p{Present_In:5.1} \p{In=5.1} \p{Present_In:5.2} \p{In=5.2}
\p{Script:Common} \p{Sc=Zyyy} \p{Script:Zyyy} \p{Sentence_Break:SE} \p{Sentence_Break=Sep} \p{Sentence_Break:Sep} \p{SB=SE} \p{Word_Break:Newline} \p{WB=NL} \p{Word_Break:NL} \p{Word_Break=Newline}
U+03A3 ‹Σ› \N{ GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA }:
\w \pL} \p{LC} \p{L_} \p{L&} \p{Lu}
\p{All} \p{Any} \p{Alnum} \p{Alpha} \p{Alphabetic} \p{Assigned} \p{Greek} \p{Is_Greek} \p{InGreek} \p{Cased} \p{Cased_Letter} \p{LC} \p{Changes_When_Casefolded} \p{CWCF} \p{Changes_When_Casemapped} \p{CWCM} \p{Changes_When_Lowercased} \p{CWL} \p{Changes_When_NFKC_Casefolded}
\p{CWKCF} \p{Lu} \p{L} \p{Gr_Base} \p{Grapheme_Base} \p{Graph} \p{GrBase} \p{Grek} \p{Greek_And_Coptic} \p{ID_Continue} \p{IDC} \p{ID_Start} \p{IDS} \p{Letter} \p{L_} \p{Uppercase_Letter} \p{Print} \p{Upper} \p{Uppercase} \p{Word} \p{XID_Continue} \p{XIDC} \p{XID_Start}
\p{XIDS}
\p{Age:1.1} \p{Bidi_Class:L} \p{Bidi_Class=Left_To_Right} \p{Bidi_Class:Left_To_Right} \p{Bc=L} \p{Block:Greek} \p{Block=Greek_And_Coptic} \p{Block:Greek_And_Coptic} \p{Blk=Greek} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:0} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class=Not_Reordered}
\p{Canonical_Combining_Class:Not_Reordered} \p{Ccc=NR} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:NR} \p{Decomposition_Type:None} \p{Dt=None} \p{East_Asian_Width:A} \p{East_Asian_Width=Ambiguous} \p{East_Asian_Width:Ambiguous} \p{Ea=A} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:Other} \p{GCB=XX}
\p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:XX} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break=Other} \p{Script=Greek} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:NA} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type=Not_Applicable} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:Not_Applicable} \p{Hst=NA} \p{Joining_Group:No_Joining_Group} \p{Jg=NoJoiningGroup}
\p{Joining_Type:Non_Joining} \p{Jt=U} \p{Joining_Type:U} \p{Joining_Type=Non_Joining} \p{Line_Break:AL} \p{Line_Break=Alphabetic} \p{Line_Break:Alphabetic} \p{Lb=AL} \p{Numeric_Type:None} \p{Nt=None} \p{Numeric_Value:NaN} \p{Nv=NaN} \p{Present_In:1.1} \p{Age=1.1} \p{In=1.1}
\p{Present_In:2.0} \p{In=2.0} \p{Present_In:2.1} \p{In=2.1} \p{Present_In:3.0} \p{In=3.0} \p{Present_In:3.1} \p{In=3.1} \p{Present_In:3.2} \p{In=3.2} \p{Present_In:4.0} \p{In=4.0} \p{Present_In:4.1} \p{In=4.1} \p{Present_In:5.0} \p{In=5.0} \p{Present_In:5.1} \p{In=5.1}
\p{Present_In:5.2} \p{In=5.2} \p{Script:Greek} \p{Sc=Grek} \p{Script:Grek} \p{Sentence_Break:UP} \p{Sentence_Break=Upper} \p{Sentence_Break:Upper} \p{SB=UP} \p{Word_Break:ALetter} \p{WB=LE} \p{Word_Break:LE} \p{Word_Break=ALetter}
U+221E ‹∞› \N{ INFINITY }:
\pS \p{Sm}
\p{All} \p{Any} \p{Assigned} \p{InMathematicalOperators} \p{Common} \p{Zyyy} \p{Sm} \p{S} \p{Gr_Base} \p{Grapheme_Base} \p{Graph} \p{GrBase} \p{Math} \p{Math_Symbol} \p{Pat_Syn} \p{Pattern_Syntax} \p{PatSyn} \p{Print} \p{Symbol}
\p{Age:1.1} \p{Bidi_Class:ON} \p{Bidi_Class=Other_Neutral} \p{Bidi_Class:Other_Neutral} \p{Bc=ON} \p{Block:Mathematical_Operators} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:0} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class=Not_Reordered} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:Not_Reordered} \p{Ccc=NR}
\p{Canonical_Combining_Class:NR} \p{Script=Common} \p{Decomposition_Type:None} \p{Dt=None} \p{East_Asian_Width:A} \p{East_Asian_Width=Ambiguous} \p{East_Asian_Width:Ambiguous} \p{Ea=A} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:Other} \p{GCB=XX} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:XX}
\p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break=Other} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:NA} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type=Not_Applicable} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:Not_Applicable} \p{Hst=NA} \p{Joining_Group:No_Joining_Group} \p{Jg=NoJoiningGroup} \p{Joining_Type:Non_Joining} \p{Jt=U} \p{Joining_Type:U}
\p{Joining_Type=Non_Joining} \p{Line_Break:AI} \p{Line_Break=Ambiguous} \p{Line_Break:Ambiguous} \p{Lb=AI} \p{Numeric_Type:None} \p{Nt=None} \p{Numeric_Value:NaN} \p{Nv=NaN} \p{Present_In:1.1} \p{Age=1.1} \p{In=1.1} \p{Present_In:2.0} \p{In=2.0} \p{Present_In:2.1} \p{In=2.1}
\p{Present_In:3.0} \p{In=3.0} \p{Present_In:3.1} \p{In=3.1} \p{Present_In:3.2} \p{In=3.2} \p{Present_In:4.0} \p{In=4.0} \p{Present_In:4.1} \p{In=4.1} \p{Present_In:5.0} \p{In=5.0} \p{Present_In:5.1} \p{In=5.1} \p{Present_In:5.2} \p{In=5.2} \p{Script:Common} \p{Sc=Zyyy}
\p{Script:Zyyy} \p{Sentence_Break:Other} \p{SB=XX} \p{Sentence_Break:XX} \p{Sentence_Break=Other} \p{Word_Break:Other} \p{WB=XX} \p{Word_Break:XX} \p{Word_Break=Other}
U+FEFF ‹U+FEFF› \N{ ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE }:
\pC \p{Cf}
\p{All} \p{Any} \p{Assigned} \p{InArabicPresentationFormsB} \p{C} \p{Other} \p{Case_Ignorable} \p{CI} \p{Cf} \p{Format} \p{Changes_When_NFKC_Casefolded} \p{CWKCF} \p{Common} \p{Zyyy} \p{Default_Ignorable_Code_Point} \p{DI} \p{Graph} \p{Print}
\p{Age:1.1} \p{Bidi_Class:BN} \p{Bidi_Class=Boundary_Neutral} \p{Bidi_Class:Boundary_Neutral} \p{Bc=BN} \p{Block:Arabic_Presentation_Forms_B} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:0} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class=Not_Reordered} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:Not_Reordered} \p{Ccc=NR}
\p{Canonical_Combining_Class:NR} \p{Script=Common} \p{Decomposition_Type:None} \p{Dt=None} \p{East_Asian_Width=Neutral} \p{East_Asian_Width:Neutral} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:CN} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break=Control} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:Control} \p{GCB=CN}
\p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:NA} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type=Not_Applicable} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:Not_Applicable} \p{Hst=NA} \p{Joining_Group:No_Joining_Group} \p{Jg=NoJoiningGroup} \p{Joining_Type:T} \p{Joining_Type=Transparent} \p{Joining_Type:Transparent} \p{Jt=T}
\p{Line_Break:WJ} \p{Line_Break=Word_Joiner} \p{Line_Break:Word_Joiner} \p{Lb=WJ} \p{Numeric_Type:None} \p{Nt=None} \p{Numeric_Value:NaN} \p{Nv=NaN} \p{Present_In:1.1} \p{Age=1.1} \p{In=1.1} \p{Present_In:2.0} \p{In=2.0} \p{Present_In:2.1} \p{In=2.1} \p{Present_In:3.0}
\p{In=3.0} \p{Present_In:3.1} \p{In=3.1} \p{Present_In:3.2} \p{In=3.2} \p{Present_In:4.0} \p{In=4.0} \p{Present_In:4.1} \p{In=4.1} \p{Present_In:5.0} \p{In=5.0} \p{Present_In:5.1} \p{In=5.1} \p{Present_In:5.2} \p{In=5.2} \p{Script:Common} \p{Sc=Zyyy} \p{Script:Zyyy}
\p{Sentence_Break:FO} \p{Sentence_Break=Format} \p{Sentence_Break:Format} \p{SB=FO} \p{Word_Break:FO} \p{Word_Break=Format} \p{Word_Break:Format} \p{WB=FO}
U+3000 ‹U+3000› \N{ IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE }:
\s \h \pZ \p{Zs}
\p{All} \p{Any} \p{Assigned} \p{Blank} \p{InCJKSymbolsAndPunctuation} \p{Changes_When_NFKC_Casefolded} \p{CWKCF} \p{Common} \p{Zyyy} \p{Z} \p{Zs} \p{Gr_Base} \p{Grapheme_Base} \p{GrBase} \p{HorizSpace} \p{Print} \p{Separator} \p{Space} \p{Space_Separator} \p{SpacePerl}
\p{White_Space} \p{WSpace}
\p{Age:1.1} \p{Bidi_Class:White_Space} \p{Bc=WS} \p{Bidi_Class:WS} \p{Bidi_Class=White_Space} \p{Block:CJK_Symbols_And_Punctuation} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:0} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class=Not_Reordered} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:Not_Reordered} \p{Ccc=NR}
\p{Canonical_Combining_Class:NR} \p{Script=Common} \p{Decomposition_Type:Non_Canon} \p{Decomposition_Type=Non_Canonical} \p{Decomposition_Type:Non_Canonical} \p{Dt=NonCanon} \p{Decomposition_Type:Wide} \p{Dt=Wide} \p{East_Asian_Width:F} \p{East_Asian_Width=Fullwidth}
\p{East_Asian_Width:Fullwidth} \p{Ea=F} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:Other} \p{GCB=XX} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:XX} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break=Other} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:NA} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type=Not_Applicable} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:Not_Applicable} \p{Hst=NA}
\p{Joining_Group:No_Joining_Group} \p{Jg=NoJoiningGroup} \p{Joining_Type:Non_Joining} \p{Jt=U} \p{Joining_Type:U} \p{Joining_Type=Non_Joining} \p{Line_Break:ID} \p{Line_Break=Ideographic} \p{Line_Break:Ideographic} \p{Lb=ID} \p{Numeric_Type:None} \p{Nt=None}
\p{Numeric_Value:NaN} \p{Nv=NaN} \p{Present_In:1.1} \p{Age=1.1} \p{In=1.1} \p{Present_In:2.0} \p{In=2.0} \p{Present_In:2.1} \p{In=2.1} \p{Present_In:3.0} \p{In=3.0} \p{Present_In:3.1} \p{In=3.1} \p{Present_In:3.2} \p{In=3.2} \p{Present_In:4.0} \p{In=4.0} \p{Present_In:4.1}
\p{In=4.1} \p{Present_In:5.0} \p{In=5.0} \p{Present_In:5.1} \p{In=5.1} \p{Present_In:5.2} \p{In=5.2} \p{Script:Common} \p{Sc=Zyyy} \p{Script:Zyyy} \p{Sentence_Break:Sp} \p{SB=Sp} \p{Word_Break:Other} \p{WB=XX} \p{Word_Break:XX} \p{Word_Break=Other}
U+12345 ‹› \N{ CUNEIFORM SIGN URU TIMES KI }:
\w} \p{\pL} \p{L_} \p{Lo}
\p{All} \p{Any} \p{Alnum} \p{Alpha} \p{Alphabetic} \p{Assigned} \p{InCuneiform} \p{Cuneiform} \p{Is_Cuneiform} \p{Xsux} \p{L} \p{Lo} \p{Gr_Base} \p{Grapheme_Base} \p{Graph} \p{GrBase} \p{ID_Continue} \p{IDC} \p{ID_Start} \p{IDS} \p{Letter} \p{L_} \p{Other_Letter} \p{Print}
\p{Word} \p{XID_Continue} \p{XIDC} \p{XID_Start} \p{XIDS}
\p{Age:5.0} \p{Bidi_Class:L} \p{Bidi_Class=Left_To_Right} \p{Bidi_Class:Left_To_Right} \p{Bc=L} \p{Block:Cuneiform} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:0} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class=Not_Reordered} \p{Canonical_Combining_Class:Not_Reordered} \p{Ccc=NR}
\p{Canonical_Combining_Class:NR} \p{Script=Cuneiform} \p{Block=Cuneiform} \p{Decomposition_Type:None} \p{Dt=None} \p{East_Asian_Width=Neutral} \p{East_Asian_Width:Neutral} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:Other} \p{GCB=XX} \p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break:XX}
\p{Grapheme_Cluster_Break=Other} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:NA} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type=Not_Applicable} \p{Hangul_Syllable_Type:Not_Applicable} \p{Hst=NA} \p{Joining_Group:No_Joining_Group} \p{Jg=NoJoiningGroup} \p{Joining_Type:Non_Joining} \p{Jt=U} \p{Joining_Type:U}
\p{Joining_Type=Non_Joining} \p{Line_Break:AL} \p{Line_Break=Alphabetic} \p{Line_Break:Alphabetic} \p{Lb=AL} \p{Numeric_Type:None} \p{Nt=None} \p{Numeric_Value:NaN} \p{Nv=NaN} \p{Present_In:5.0} \p{In=5.0} \p{Present_In:5.1} \p{In=5.1} \p{Present_In:5.2} \p{In=5.2}
\p{Script:Cuneiform} \p{Sc=Xsux} \p{Script:Xsux} \p{Sentence_Break:LE} \p{Sentence_Break=OLetter} \p{Sentence_Break:OLetter} \p{SB=LE} \p{Word_Break:ALetter} \p{WB=LE} \p{Word_Break:LE} \p{Word_Break=ALetter}
Or, going the other way:
$ unichars '\pN' '\D' '\p{Latin}'
Ⅰ 8544 02160 ROMAN NUMERAL ONE
Ⅱ 8545 02161 ROMAN NUMERAL TWO
Ⅲ 8546 02162 ROMAN NUMERAL THREE
Ⅳ 8547 02163 ROMAN NUMERAL FOUR
Ⅴ 8548 02164 ROMAN NUMERAL FIVE
Ⅵ 8549 02165 ROMAN NUMERAL SIX
Ⅶ 8550 02166 ROMAN NUMERAL SEVEN
Ⅷ 8551 02167 ROMAN NUMERAL EIGHT
(etc)
$ unichars -a '\pL' '\p{Greek}' 'NFD ne NFKD' 'NAME =~ /SYMBOL/'
ϐ 976 3D0 GREEK BETA SYMBOL
ϑ 977 3D1 GREEK THETA SYMBOL
ϒ 978 3D2 GREEK UPSILON WITH HOOK SYMBOL
ϓ 979 3D3 GREEK UPSILON WITH ACUTE AND HOOK SYMBOL
ϔ 980 3D4 GREEK UPSILON WITH DIAERESIS AND HOOK SYMBOL
ϕ 981 3D5 GREEK PHI SYMBOL
ϖ 982 3D6 GREEK PI SYMBOL
ϰ 1008 3F0 GREEK KAPPA SYMBOL
ϱ 1009 3F1 GREEK RHO SYMBOL
ϲ 1010 3F2 GREEK LUNATE SIGMA SYMBOL
ϴ 1012 3F4 GREEK CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL
ϵ 1013 3F5 GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL
Ϲ 1017 3F9 GREEK CAPITAL LUNATE SIGMA SYMBOL
Oh, and BNM means “Brave New Millennium”, referring to our modern, post-ASCII world in which characters are more than just seven paltry bits wide. ☺