direction

Detect the direction of text: left-to-right, right-to-left, or neutral.

Contents

• What is this?
• When should I use this?
• Install
• Use
• API
  • direction(value)
• CLI
• Types
• Compatibility
• Security
• Contribute
• License

What is this?

This package detects whether text is written left-to-right or right-to-left.

When should I use this?

This is a simple and fast algorithm. It looks at the first strong left-to-right or right-to-left character (for example, the letter a is LTR, the letter ى is RTL). That’s often enough but might be too naïve as it doesn’t take percentages or so into account.

Install

This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 12.20+, 14.14+, or 16.0+), install with npm:

npm install direction

In Deno with Skypack:

import {direction} from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/direction@2?dts'

In browsers with Skypack:

<script type="module">
  import {direction} from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/direction@2?min'
</script>

Use

import {direction} from 'direction'

direction('A') // => 'ltr'
direction('anglais') // => 'ltr'
direction('بسيطة') // => 'rtl'
direction('@') // => 'neutral'

API

This package exports the following identifier: direction. There is no default export.

direction(value)

Detect the direction of value (string?). Returns 'ltr', 'rtl', or 'neutral'.

CLI

Usage: direction [options] <words...>

Detect the direction of text: left-to-right, right-to-left, or neutral

Options:

  -h, --help           output usage information
  -v, --version        output version number

Usage:

# output directionality
$ direction @
# neutral

# output directionality from stdin
$ echo 'الانجليزية' | direction
# rtl

Types

This package is fully typed with TypeScript. There are no extra exported types.

Compatibility

This package is at least compatible with all maintained versions of Node.js. As of now, that is Node.js 12.20+, 14.14+, and 16.0+. It also works in Deno and modern browsers.

Security

This package is safe.

Contribute

Yes please! See How to Contribute to Open Source.

License

MIT © Titus Wormer