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I'm not a Ruby dev by trade, but am using Capistrano for PHP deployments. I'm trying to cleanup the output of my script and am trying to add a unicode check mark as discussed in this blog.

The problem is if I do:

checkmark = "\u2713"
puts checkmark

It outputs "\u2713" instead of ✓

I've googled around and I just can't find anywhere that discusses this.

TLDR: How do I puts or print the unicode checkmark U-2713?

EDIT

I am running Ruby 1.8.7 on my Mac (OSX Lion) so cannot use the encode method. My shell is Bash in iTerm2.

UPDATE [4/8/2019] Added reference image in case site ever goes down.

Unicode Check Mark U+2713

Jeremy Harris
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5 Answers5

50

In Ruby 1.9.x+

Use String#encode:

checkmark = "\u2713"
puts checkmark.encode('utf-8')

prints

✓

In Ruby 1.8.7

puts '\u2713'.gsub(/\\u[\da-f]{4}/i) { |m| [m[-4..-1].to_i(16)].pack('U') }
✓
rogerdpack
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falsetru
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  • I should have mentioned I have Ruby 1.8.7 and apparently the `encode` method isn't available until 1.9. How was it done prior to 1.9? – Jeremy Harris Aug 28 '13 at 15:55
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    @cillosis, I added Ruby 1.8.7 compatible version. You should use `'\u2713'` or `"\\u2713"`, because `"\u2713" == "u2713"` in ruby 1.8. – falsetru Aug 28 '13 at 16:03
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    Bam! I first tried your solution and it wasn't working. Then went to single quotes and it worked! Thanks :) – Jeremy Harris Aug 28 '13 at 16:07
  • I was able to simply do something like `checkmark = "\u2713".encode('utf-8'); puts checkmark` and so the encoding was saved to the variable. This works for me in Ruby 2.2.2. – HarlemSquirrel Jan 29 '16 at 19:06
  • @sixty4bit, If you want to notify OP, mention OP or comment on the question. Otherwise, OP will not be notified. – falsetru Nov 07 '16 at 01:29
  • checkmark = "\u2663" puts checkmark.encode('utf-8') prints ♣ for me! – Adjam Jan 18 '19 at 09:10
  • `"\u127968".encode("utf-8")` is giving me `ቹ68`. I was hoping for ``. Is there a Ruby way to print the upper ranges of Unicode? – Lori Jun 11 '19 at 20:23
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    @Lori, `"\u{1f3e0}"` (`'1f3e0' == 127968.to_s(16)`) – falsetru Jun 12 '19 at 01:47
17

falsetru's answer is incorrect.

checkmark = "\u2713"
puts checkmark.encode('utf-8')

This transcodes the checkmark from the current system encoding to UTF-8 encoding. (That works only on a system whose default is already UTF-8.)

The correct answer is:

puts checkmark.force_encoding('utf-8')

This modifies the string's encoding, without modifying any character sequence.

Camille Goudeseune
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zw963
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17

In newer versions of Ruby, you don't need to enforce encoding. Here is an example with 2.1.2:

2.1.2 :002 > "\u00BD"
 => "½"

Just make sure you use double quotes!

sixty4bit
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  • This comment about making sure to use double-quotes saved me -- I was tearing my hair out trying to figure out why this wasn't working! – Dasmowenator Feb 22 '21 at 23:31
2

As an additional note, if you want to print an emoji, you have to surround it with braces.

irb(main):001:0> "\u{1F600}"
=> ""
Blubber
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0

Same goes as above in ERB, no forced encoding required, works perfectly, tested at Ruby 2.3.0

    <%= "\u00BD" %>

Much appreciation

killscreen
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