What is an example regex in ruby that will match any emojis?

Question

I need to match emojis in a string in Ruby using a regex. I have tried several unicode sequences and none seem to quite do the job. I am also not sure where the start and end range for emojis would be.

Answer 1

This regex matches all 845 emoji, taken from Emoji unicode characters for use on the web:

[\u{203C}\u{2049}\u{20E3}\u{2122}\u{2139}\u{2194}-\u{2199}\u{21A9}-\u{21AA}\u{231A}-\u{231B}\u{23E9}-\u{23EC}\u{23F0}\u{23F3}\u{24C2}\u{25AA}-\u{25AB}\u{25B6}\u{25C0}\u{25FB}-\u{25FE}\u{2600}-\u{2601}\u{260E}\u{2611}\u{2614}-\u{2615}\u{261D}\u{263A}\u{2648}-\u{2653}\u{2660}\u{2663}\u{2665}-\u{2666}\u{2668}\u{267B}\u{267F}\u{2693}\u{26A0}-\u{26A1}\u{26AA}-\u{26AB}\u{26BD}-\u{26BE}\u{26C4}-\u{26C5}\u{26CE}\u{26D4}\u{26EA}\u{26F2}-\u{26F3}\u{26F5}\u{26FA}\u{26FD}\u{2702}\u{2705}\u{2708}-\u{270C}\u{270F}\u{2712}\u{2714}\u{2716}\u{2728}\u{2733}-\u{2734}\u{2744}\u{2747}\u{274C}\u{274E}\u{2753}-\u{2755}\u{2757}\u{2764}\u{2795}-\u{2797}\u{27A1}\u{27B0}\u{2934}-\u{2935}\u{2B05}-\u{2B07}\u{2B1B}-\u{2B1C}\u{2B50}\u{2B55}\u{3030}\u{303D}\u{3297}\u{3299}\u{1F004}\u{1F0CF}\u{1F170}-\u{1F171}\u{1F17E}-\u{1F17F}\u{1F18E}\u{1F191}-\u{1F19A}\u{1F1E7}-\u{1F1EC}\u{1F1EE}-\u{1F1F0}\u{1F1F3}\u{1F1F5}\u{1F1F7}-\u{1F1FA}\u{1F201}-\u{1F202}\u{1F21A}\u{1F22F}\u{1F232}-\u{1F23A}\u{1F250}-\u{1F251}\u{1F300}-\u{1F320}\u{1F330}-\u{1F335}\u{1F337}-\u{1F37C}\u{1F380}-\u{1F393}\u{1F3A0}-\u{1F3C4}\u{1F3C6}-\u{1F3CA}\u{1F3E0}-\u{1F3F0}\u{1F400}-\u{1F43E}\u{1F440}\u{1F442}-\u{1F4F7}\u{1F4F9}-\u{1F4FC}\u{1F500}-\u{1F507}\u{1F509}-\u{1F53D}\u{1F550}-\u{1F567}\u{1F5FB}-\u{1F640}\u{1F645}-\u{1F64F}\u{1F680}-\u{1F68A}]

I generated this regex directly from the raw list of Unicode emoji. The algorithm is here: https://github.com/franklsf95/ruby-emoji-regex.

Example usage:

regex = /[\u{203C}\u{2049}\u{20E3}\u{2122}\u{2139}\u{2194}-\u{2199}\u{21A9}-\u{21AA}\u{231A}-\u{231B}\u{23E9}-\u{23EC}\u{23F0}\u{23F3}\u{24C2}\u{25AA}-\u{25AB}\u{25B6}\u{25C0}\u{25FB}-\u{25FE}\u{2600}-\u{2601}\u{260E}\u{2611}\u{2614}-\u{2615}\u{261D}\u{263A}\u{2648}-\u{2653}\u{2660}\u{2663}\u{2665}-\u{2666}\u{2668}\u{267B}\u{267F}\u{2693}\u{26A0}-\u{26A1}\u{26AA}-\u{26AB}\u{26BD}-\u{26BE}\u{26C4}-\u{26C5}\u{26CE}\u{26D4}\u{26EA}\u{26F2}-\u{26F3}\u{26F5}\u{26FA}\u{26FD}\u{2702}\u{2705}\u{2708}-\u{270C}\u{270F}\u{2712}\u{2714}\u{2716}\u{2728}\u{2733}-\u{2734}\u{2744}\u{2747}\u{274C}\u{274E}\u{2753}-\u{2755}\u{2757}\u{2764}\u{2795}-\u{2797}\u{27A1}\u{27B0}\u{2934}-\u{2935}\u{2B05}-\u{2B07}\u{2B1B}-\u{2B1C}\u{2B50}\u{2B55}\u{3030}\u{303D}\u{3297}\u{3299}\u{1F004}\u{1F0CF}\u{1F170}-\u{1F171}\u{1F17E}-\u{1F17F}\u{1F18E}\u{1F191}-\u{1F19A}\u{1F1E7}-\u{1F1EC}\u{1F1EE}-\u{1F1F0}\u{1F1F3}\u{1F1F5}\u{1F1F7}-\u{1F1FA}\u{1F201}-\u{1F202}\u{1F21A}\u{1F22F}\u{1F232}-\u{1F23A}\u{1F250}-\u{1F251}\u{1F300}-\u{1F320}\u{1F330}-\u{1F335}\u{1F337}-\u{1F37C}\u{1F380}-\u{1F393}\u{1F3A0}-\u{1F3C4}\u{1F3C6}-\u{1F3CA}\u{1F3E0}-\u{1F3F0}\u{1F400}-\u{1F43E}\u{1F440}\u{1F442}-\u{1F4F7}\u{1F4F9}-\u{1F4FC}\u{1F500}-\u{1F507}\u{1F509}-\u{1F53D}\u{1F550}-\u{1F567}\u{1F5FB}-\u{1F640}\u{1F645}-\u{1F64F}\u{1F680}-\u{1F68A}]/
str = "I am a string with emoji 😍😍😱😱👿👿🐔🌚 and other Unicode characters 比如中文."
str.gsub regex, ''
# "I am a string with emoji  and other Unicode characters 比如中文."

Other Unicode characters, such as Asian characters, are preserved.

EDIT: I udpated the regex to exclude ASCII numbers and symbols. See comments from How do I remove emoji from string for details.

Answer 2

Emojis don't exist in one single range. They are scattered about. This is a collection of codes, and ranges where possible, that will match emojis. Tested in ruby 2.0.0p451:

str = "😣"
str.scan(/[\u{00A9}\u{00AE}\u{203C}\u{2049}\u{2122}\u{2139}\u{2194}-\u{2199}\u{21A9}-\u{21AA}\u{231A}-\u{231B}\u{23E9}-\u{23EC}\u{23F0}\u{23F3}\u{24C2}\u{25AA}-\u{25AB}\u{25B6}\u{25C0}\u{25FB}-\u{25FE}\u{2600}-\u{2601}\u{260E}\u{2611}\u{2614}-\u{2615}\u{261D}\u{263A}\u{2648}-\u{2653}\u{2660}\u{2663}\u{2665}-\u{2666}\u{2668}\u{267B}\u{267F}\u{2693}\u{26A0}-\u{26A1}\u{26AA}-\u{26AB}\u{26BD}-\u{26BE}\u{26C4}-\u{26C5}\u{26CE}\u{26D4}\u{26EA}\u{26F2}-\u{26F3}\u{26F5}\u{26FA}\u{26FD}\u{2702}\u{2705}\u{2708}-\u{270C}\u{270F}\u{2712}\u{2714}\u{2716}\u{2728}\u{2733}-\u{2734}\u{2744}\u{2747}\u{274C}\u{274E}\u{2753}-\u{2755}\u{2757}\u{2764}\u{2795}-\u{2797}\u{27A1}\u{27B0}\u{27BF}\u{2934}-\u{2935}\u{2B05}-\u{2B07}\u{2B1B}-\u{2B1C}\u{2B50}\u{2B55}\u{3030}\u{303D}\u{3297}\u{3299}\u{1F004}\u{1F0CF}\u{1F170}-\u{1F171}\u{1F17E}-\u{1F17F}\u{1F18E}\u{1F191}-\u{1F19A}\u{1F201}-\u{1F202}\u{1F21A}\u{1F22F}\u{1F232}-\u{1F23A}\u{1F250}-\u{1F251}\u{1F300}-\u{1F31F}\u{1F330}-\u{1F335}\u{1F337}-\u{1F37C}\u{1F380}-\u{1F393}\u{1F3A0}-\u{1F3C4}\u{1F3C6}-\u{1F3CA}\u{1F3E0}-\u{1F3F0}\u{1F400}-\u{1F43E}\u{1F440}\u{1F442}-\u{1F4F7}\u{1F4F9}-\u{1F4FC}\u{1F500}-\u{1F507}\u{1F509}-\u{1F53D}\u{1F550}-\u{1F567}\u{1F5FB}-\u{1F640}\u{1F645}-\u{1F64F}\u{1F680}-\u{1F68A}\u{1F68C}-\u{1F6C5}]/)

Answer 3

You can use the emoji_data gem to canonically match emoji in a string via it's .scan method: https://github.com/mroth/emoji_data.rb

(disclaimer: I am the author)

Answer 4

Some of the more recent Emoji need to be constructed by multiple Emoji-related codepoints, for example, using the invisible "Zero-width joiner" (U+200D) codepoint to construct so called Emoji ZWJ sequences. You can use my unicode-emoji gem, which comes with a regex, build from the latest Emoji data by the Unicode consortium.