Unicode Sequence Analyzer

Analyze Unicode sequences online

Break text into grapheme clusters and Unicode code points, then inspect encodings, scripts, categories, normalization status, directionality and invisible characters without changing the input.

Unicode sequence analysis example

The default example Hello, café 😀 contains 13 grapheme clusters, 13 Unicode code points, 14 UTF-16 code units and 17 UTF-8 bytes. It detects the Latin and Common scripts, has no combining marks and no bidi controls, and is already in NFC. The final emoji alone is 1 grapheme cluster, 1 code point, 2 UTF-16 code units, 4 UTF-8 bytes and script Common.

Grapheme clusters and code points

A grapheme cluster is the user-perceived character people think of as "one letter," while a code point is a single Unicode scalar value; UTF-16 code units are the JavaScript-style string units used to measure string.length. One grapheme cluster can contain several code points, such as a decomposed accented letter, a combining sequence or an emoji built from a base character plus joiners, modifiers or variation selectors. See Code Points vs Code Units and What Is a Grapheme Cluster?.

Scripts and mixed-script text

The Unicode Script property classifies each code point by writing system, such as Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew or Han. Punctuation, digits, spaces and most emoji are typically Common, and many combining marks are Inherited because they take their script context from the preceding base character. Raw script values and script runs are always shown; an optional resolved view can associate a Common or Inherited run with the substantive script on both sides when they match, documented as a derived heuristic rather than a raw property. Mixed-script text is reported as a diagnostic observation, not as evidence of malicious intent; see the Mixed Script Detector for a tool dedicated to this analysis.

Bidirectional properties and directionality

Every code point has a bidirectional class, such as left-to-right (L), right-to-left (R), Arabic letters (AL), numbers (EN/AN), neutral punctuation (WS/ON) and directional isolates or controls. Directionality runs group consecutive code points that share a direction. This is bidi-property analysis, not exact rendered order: the analyzer does not implement the full Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm, so it cannot reproduce every detail of how a browser visually lays out mixed-direction text.

Unicode normalization status

NFC and NFD are canonical normalization forms that reorganize combining sequences without changing meaning. NFKC and NFKD additionally apply compatibility mappings, which can replace characters like ligatures, circled digits or full-width forms with plainer equivalents, potentially removing distinctions that mattered in the original text. Normalizing can change code-point and byte counts even when the visual text looks the same. This analyzer computes all four forms for comparison only and never modifies your input.

Emoji, joiners and combining sequences

Combining marks attach to the base character before them; precomposed characters (like é) and their decomposed equivalents (a letter followed by a combining mark) can look identical but have different code points. Emoji sequences use zero-width joiners (ZWJ) to combine multiple emoji into one glyph, regional-indicator pairs to form flags, skin-tone modifiers, and variation selectors to request emoji or text presentation. This tool reports these as structural indicators (contains ZWJ, regional indicators, an emoji modifier, a variation selector, a keycap or tag sequence) rather than a complete emoji-sequence classification.

Invisible and control characters

Zero-width spaces, word joiners, ZWNJ, ZWJ, soft hyphens, variation selectors, bidi controls, non-breaking and other special Unicode spaces, combining marks, private-use characters and unassigned code points are all counted in separate categories rather than one combined "invisible" total, and each is shown with a safe bracketed label rather than rendered raw or left as an empty cell. Invisible does not mean meaningless: joiners, bidi controls and variation selectors change how text behaves or renders even though they have no visible glyph of their own. See the Invisible Character Detector for a tool focused specifically on this.

Sequence Analyzer vs Character Inspector

The Unicode Sequence Analyzer examines complete strings: grapheme segmentation, script runs, directionality runs, combining sequences, emoji sequences, mixed-script analysis and sequence-level normalization status. The Unicode Character Inspector is best for one character at a time, showing detailed individual character properties and exact encoding forms for character-level lookup. Use the Sequence Analyzer for whole strings and the Character Inspector when you need to inspect a single character closely.

How to use the analyzer

1. Paste or type Unicode text into the input field.
2. Run the analyzer or review live summary results.
3. Inspect grapheme clusters and constituent code points.
4. Review script runs, bidi properties and normalization status.
5. Check joiners, controls, variation selectors and other special characters.
6. Copy or download the analysis report.

Common use cases

• Inspect emoji and combining-character sequences.
• Debug strings with unexpected code-point counts.
• Analyze scripts in multilingual text.
• Find mixed Latin, Cyrillic or Greek characters.
• Review bidirectional properties and controls.
• Check whether text is NFC or NFD.
• Inspect invisible Unicode characters.
• Create Unicode test fixtures for applications and APIs.

Privacy and local processing

Analysis runs with JavaScript directly in your browser. Your text is not submitted to UnicodeNow servers.

Frequently asked questions