_title: Strings

_section: Strings

Tra la la


_subsection: Bytes32String @<bytes32-string>

A string in Solidity is length prefixed with its 256-bit (32 byte)
length, which means that even short strings require 2 words (64 bytes)
of storage.

In many cases, we deal with short strings, so instead of prefixing
the string with its length, we can null-terminate it and fit it in a
single word (32 bytes). Since we need only a single byte for the
null termination, we can store strings up to 31 bytes long in a
word.

_note: Note
Strings that are 31 __//bytes//__ long may contain fewer than 31 __//characters//__,
since UTF-8 requires multiple bytes to encode international characters.

_property: utils.parseBytes32String(aBytesLike) => string  @<utils-parsebytes32> @TS<strings:>
Returns the decoded string represented by the ``Bytes32`` encoded data.

_property: utils.formatBytes32String(text) => string  @<utils-formatbytes32> @TS<strings:>
Returns a ``bytes32`` string representation of //text//. If the
length of //text// exceeds 31 bytes, it will throw an error.


_subsection: UTF-8 Strings @<utf8-string>

_property: utils.toUtf8Bytes(text [ , form = current ] ) => Uint8Array  @<utils-toutf8bytes> @TS<strings:>
Returns the UTF-8 bytes of //text//, optionally normalizing it using the
[[unicode-normalization-form]] //form//.

_property: utils.toUtf8CodePoints(aBytesLike [ , form = current ] ) => Array<number>  @<utils-toutf8codepoints> @TS<strings:>
Returns the Array of codepoints of //aBytesLike//, optionally normalizing it using the
[[unicode-normalization-form]] //form//.

**Note:** This function correctly splits each user-perceived character into
its codepoint, accounting for surrogate pairs. This should not be confused with
``string.split("")``, which destroys surrogate pairs, spliting between each UTF-16
codeunit instead.

_property: utils.toUtf8String(aBytesLike [ , ignoreErrors = false ] ) => string  @<utils-toutf8string> @TS<strings:>
Returns the string represented by the UTF-8 bytes of //aBytesLike//. This will
throw an error for invalid surrogates, overlong sequences or other UTF-8 issues,
unless //ignoreErrors// is specified.


_heading: UnicodeNormalizationForm @<unicode-normalization-form>

There are several [commonly used forms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_equivalence)
when normalizing UTF-8 data, which allow strings to be compared or hashed in a stable
way.

_property: utils.UnicodeNormalizationForm.current
Maintain the current normalization form.

_property: utils.UnicodeNormalizationForm.NFC
The Composed Normalization Form. This form uses single codepoints
which represent the fully composed character.

For example, the **&eacute;** is a single codepoint, ``0x00e9``.

_property: utils.UnicodeNormalizationForm.NFD
The Decomposed Normalization Form. This form uses multiple codepoints
(when necessary) to compose a character.

For example, the **&eacute;**
is made up of two codepoints, ``"0x0065"`` (which is the letter ``"e"``)
and ``"0x0301"`` which is a special diacritic UTF-8 codepoint which
indicates the previous character should have an acute accent.

_property: utils.UnicodeNormalizationForm.NFKC
The Composed Normalization Form with Canonical Equivalence. The Canonical
representation folds characters which have the same syntactic representation
but different semantic meaning.

For example, the Roman Numeral **I**, which has a UTF-8
codepoint ``"0x2160"``, is folded into the capital letter I, ``"0x0049"``.

_property: utils.UnicodeNormalizationForm.NFKD
The Decomposed Normalization Form with Canonical Equivalence.
See NFKC for more an example.

_note: Note
Only certain specified characters are folded in Canonical Equivalence, and thus
it should **not** be considered a method to acheive //any// level of security from
[homoglyph attacks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDN_homograph_attack).