PHP 7: Real World Application Development

Converting complex characters

The ability to access the entire Unicode character set opens up many new possibilities for rendering complex characters, especially characters in alphabets other than Latin-1.

How to do it...

1. Some languages are read right-to-left instead of left-to-right. Examples include Hebrew and Arabic. In this example, we show you how to present reverse text using the U+202E Unicode character for right-to-left override. The following line of code prints txet desreveR:

   echo "\u{202E}Reversed text";
   echo "\u{202D}";    // returns output to left-to-right

   Note

   Don't forget to invoke the left-to-right override character, U+202D, when finished!

2. Another consideration is the use of composed characters. One such example is ñ (the letter n with ...