unicode-org/icu
Icu
ICU is a C++ and C internationalization software library implementing global Unicode standards for multi-language text processing, collation, and locale-aware data formatting. It functions as a text processing toolkit for transforming, searching, and normalizing character strings across various scripts and language encodings, while handling character sets according to the Unicode Character Database.
Operating system differences are hidden behind a consistent internal hardware layer that handles memory allocation and character encoding uniformly. The system passes strings through canonical decomposition and composition pipelines to ensure mathematically equivalent text sequences match across different systems. Large character property tables and translation datasets compile directly into static binary arrays to eliminate external file loading overhead, and data files structure regional formatting rules hierarchically so the runtime can traverse parent locales when specific localized strings are missing. Character sets map to internal Unicode representations dynamically through swappable encoding tables supporting legacy and modern formats.
The library covers international text formatting, character encoding conversion, internationalized text collation, and locale-driven data formatting for dates, times, numbers, and currencies. Additionally, it aggregates code analysis data into structured formats like HTML, markdown, and XML to inspect software health.
Features
- Internationalization Libraries - Provides a comprehensive software collection for multi-language text processing, collation, and locale-aware data formatting.
- Locale-Aware Date and Number Formatting - Applies regional rules to format dates, times, numbers, and currencies for different languages and geographic locations.
- Internationalized Text Formatting - Applies global Unicode standards to format text, sort lists, and normalize characters for different regions and languages.
- Unicode Text Processing - Transforms, searches, and normalizes character strings across various scripts and language encodings according to global standards.
- Unicode Internationalization Implementations - Implements global Unicode standards in C++ and C for multi-language text processing, collation, and formatting.
- Unicode Normalization Pipelines - Passes strings through canonical decomposition and composition pipelines to ensure mathematically equivalent text sequences match across systems.
- Character Database Processing - Processes international text, formats dates, and handles character sets according to global Unicode standards.
- Pluggable Character Converters - Maps character sets dynamically to internal Unicode representations through swappable encoding tables supporting legacy and modern formats.
- Collation Rules - Sorts and compares multi-language text strings correctly based on specific cultural and regional sorting rules.
- Unicode Normalizers - Applies standard canonical decomposition and composition pipelines to normalize text strings across different platforms.
- Character Encoding Support - Translates text dynamically between legacy character sets and internal Unicode representations without data loss.
- Static Binary Data Arrays - Eliminates external file loading overhead by compiling character property tables and translation datasets directly into static binary arrays.
- Locale Data Retrievers - Structures regional formatting rules hierarchically so the runtime can traverse parent locales when specific localized strings are missing.
- Text Formatting and Sorting Utilities - Applies global Unicode standards to format international text, sort lists, and normalize characters across regions.
