PHP | IntlChar charFromName() Function

Last Updated : 27 Aug, 2019

The IntlChar::charFromName() function is an inbuilt function in PHP which is used to find Unicode character by name and returns the code point value. If Unicode character name does not match to a code point, then it returns NULL.

Syntax:

int IntlChar::charFromName( $characterName, $nameChoice = 
IntlChar::UNICODE_CHAR_NAME )

Parameters: This function accepts two parameters as mentioned above and described below:

$characterName: This parameter is used to hold the full Unicode character name.
$nameChoice: It is used to hold the names for lookup. The list of $nameChoice are given below:
- IntlChar::UNICODE_CHAR_NAME (default)
- IntlChar::UNICODE_10_CHAR_NAME
- IntlChar::EXTENDED_CHAR_NAME
- IntlChar::CHAR_NAME_ALIAS
- IntlChar::CHAR_NAME_CHOICE_COUNT

Return Value: This function returns the Unicode value of the code point on success or NULL if no code point exists.

Below programs illustrate the IntlChar::charFromName() function in PHP:

Example 1:

<?php 
  
// PHP code to illustrate  
// IntlChar::charFromName ()function  
     
// Input symbol of codepoint  value   
// with constraint UNICODE_CHAR_NAME  
var_dump(IntlChar::charFromName("LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G")); 
  
var_dump(IntlChar::charFromName("SNOWMAN")); 
  
var_dump(IntlChar::charFromName("GEEKSFORGEEKS")); 
  
var_dump(IntlChar::charFromName("^", IntlChar::CHAR_NAME_ALIAS ));  
  
?> 

Output:

int(71)
int(9731)
NULL
NULL

Example 2:

<?php  
  
// PHP code to illustrate  
// IntlChar::charFromName() function  
  
// Declare an array $arr with constraint 
// UNICODE_CHAR_NAME 
$arr = array(  
            "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G", 
            "SNOWMAN", 
            "GEEKSFORGEEKS"
        );  
  
// Loop run for every array element  
foreach ($arr as $val) {  
      
    // Check each element as code point data  
    var_dump(IntlChar::charFromName($val)); 
}  
?>  