Character normalization is the process of converting different character forms into a single form. The purpose of this is to reduce the number of unique characters in order to simplify text processing. For example, the character á can be normalized to a.
There are several ways to normalize characters, but the most common is to use Unicode Normalization Form C (NFC). NFC is the standard form recommended by the Unicode Consortium, and it is what is used in most text processing software.
What are some examples of different character forms?
Some common examples of different character forms include:
á, à, â -> a
é, è, ê -> e
í, ì, î -> i
ó, ò, ô -> o
ú, ù, û -> u
Character normalization capitalization
Character normalization can also refer to the process of converting all characters to either upper- or lowercase. This is often done to make text easier to read, or to search for specific terms. For example, the word “I” can be normalized to “i”.
What are some other terms that are similar to character normalization?
Other terms that are similar to character normalization include:
- Character encoding
- Character set
- String normalization
- Text normalization
What is the difference between character normalization and these other terms?
The main difference between character normalization and these other terms is that character normalization specifically refers to the process of converting different character forms into a single form. Character encoding, character set, string normalization, and text normalization are all related terms, but they each have a different meaning.
Character encoding refers to the way in which characters are represented as numbers in a computer system. Character set is a term that is used to refer to a specific collection of characters. String normalization is the process of modifying a string so that it conforms to a specific format. Text normalization is the process of standardizing text so that it can be processed by a computer.