Can R read html-encoded emoji characters?

Question

Question

My question, explained below, is:

How can R be used to read a string that includes HTML emoji codes like ��

Answer 1

JavaScript Solution

I had this exact same problem, but needed the solution in JavaScript, not R. Using rensa's comment above (hugely helpful!), I created the following code to solve this issue, and I just wanted to share it in case anyone else happens across this thread as I did, but needed it in JavaScript.

str.replace(/(&#\d+;){2}/g, function(match) {
    match = match.replace(/&#/g,'').split(';');
    var binFirst = (parseInt('0x' + parseInt(match[0]).toString(16)) - 0xd800).toString(2);
    var binSecond = (parseInt('0x' + parseInt(match[1]).toString(16)) - 0xdc00).toString(2);
    binFirst = '0000000000'.substr(binFirst.length) + binFirst;
    binSecond = '0000000000'.substr(binSecond.length) + binSecond;
    return '&#x' + (('0x' + (parseInt(binFirst + binSecond, 2).toString(16))) - (-0x10000)).toString(16) + ';';
});

---

And, here's a full snippet of it working if you'd like to run it:

var str = '������������'

str = str.replace(/(&#\d+;){2}/g, function(match) {
	match = match.replace(/&#/g,'').split(';');
	var binFirst = (parseInt('0x' + parseInt(match[0]).toString(16)) - 0xd800).toString(2);
	var binSecond = (parseInt('0x' + parseInt(match[1]).toString(16)) - 0xdc00).toString(2);
	binFirst = '0000000000'.substr(binFirst.length) + binFirst;
	binSecond = '0000000000'.substr(binSecond.length) + binSecond;
	return '&#x' + (('0x' + (parseInt(binFirst + binSecond, 2).toString(16))) - (-0x10000)).toString(16) + ';';
});

document.getElementById('result').innerHTML = str;

//  ������������
//  is turned into
//  😊😘😀😆😂😁
//  which is rendered by the browser as the emojis

Original:
������������


Result:

My SMS XML Parser application is working great now, but it stalls out on large XML files so, I'm thinking about rewriting it in PHP. If/when I do, I'll post that code as well.