cypunct 0.1.1
Cypunct is a Cython package to split Unicode strings based on a given frozenset of Unicode code points.
License: MIT
Keywords: unicode string splitting

cypunct: Fast-ish unicode string splitting
******************************************
Cypunct is designed to solve the problem of quickly splitting a Unicode
string based on a set of characters.

Cypunct is designed to work on Python 2.6, 2.7, and 3.3+. Because
Cypunct is a Cython extension, it will (probably) only work in the CPython
runtime.

For Python versions 2.6 and 2.7, Cypunct will only run if these
CPython runtimes are compiled with the flag
``--enable-unicode=ucs4``. Cypunct will throw an exception
if your Python 2 runtime was not compiled with UCS-4.

Installation
============
Installation is easiest with pip. Just run

.. code:: bash

    pip install cypunct


Usage
=====
Cypunct takes a Unicode string and a ``frozenset`` of delimiter characters,
and splits the string based on that set. Every delimiter character
should be a single Unicode code point -- ``len(char)`` should be 1.

A simple example, where we provide a small ``frozenset`` is below.

.. code:: python

    >>> from cypunct import split
    >>> split("James Mishra is the... best human ever, or so I think.", frozenset({' ', '.', ','}))
    ['James', 'Mishra', 'is', 'the', 'best', 'human', 'ever', 'or', 'so', 'I', 'think', '']

However, if you only need to split on whitespace characters, ``str.split()`` much
better performance. If you only need to split on one character, ``str.split(char)``
will also be much faster.

Cypunct really shines when you need to split on many possible characters,
such as an entire `Unicode character category <http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/category/index.htm>`_.

The below example splits on all Unicode punctuation, and nothing else.

.. code:: python

    >>> from cypunct.unicode_classes import P
    >>> split("James Mishra is the... best human ever, or so I think.", P)
    ['James Mishra is the', ' best human ever', ' or so I think', '']
 
The following Unicode classes are available as sets:


========  ===========
Category  Description
========  ===========
**C**     **Other**
Cc        Other, Format
Cf        Other, Not Assigned
Co        Other, Private Use
Cs        Other, Surrogate
**L**     **Letter**
Ll        Letter, Lowercase
Lm        Letter, Modifier
Lo        Letter, Other
Lt        Letter, Titlecase
Lu        Letter, Uppercase
**M**     **Mark**
Mc        Mark, Space Combining
Me        Mark, Enclosing
Mn        Mark, Nonspacing
N         **Number**
Nd        Number, Decimal Digit
Nl        Number, Letter
No        Number, Other
**P**     **Punctuation**
Pc        Punctuation, Connector
Pd        Punctuation, Dash
Pe        Punctuation, Close
Pf        Punctuation, Final Quote
Pi        Punctuation, Initial Quote
Po        Punctuation, Other
Ps        Punctuation, Open
**S**     **Symbol**
Sc        Symbol, Currency
Sk        Symbol, Modifier
Sm        Symbol, Math
So        Symbol, Other
**Z**     **Separator**
Zl        Separator, Line
Zp        Separator, Paragraph
Zs        Separator, Space
========  ===========


``cypunct.unicode_classes.COMMON_SEPARATORS`` is the union of the ``C``, ``P``, ``S``, and ``Z``
``frozensets``. I have found it personally useful when splitting text for natural
language processing applications.

If you don't specify a ``frozenset`` for Cypunct to use, then Cypunct will
default to ``COMMON_SEPARATORS``.
 
Updating Unicode data
=====================
Currently, ``cypunct.unicode_classes`` is a Python module autogenerated from a
``UnicodeData.txt`` file. The autogeneration script exists in
`make_punctuation_file.py <https://github.com/jamesmishra/cypunct/blob/master/make_punctuation_file.py>`_.

Most Cypunct users will not need to concern themselves with this, but this is important
to know if you are experiencing Unicode bugs or want to contribute to Cypunct.

The current ``UnicodeData.txt`` is from ftp://ftp.unicode.org/Public/10.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
================================
**Q: I got an installation error involving
"pkg_resources.VersionConflict (setuptools xx.xx.xx".
How do I fix this?**

You have a very old version of setuptools, and we won't be able to
compile our Cython extension with it. Run
``pip install --upgrade setuptools`` and try installing Cypunct again.

**Q: Wouldn't this be way faster if it were written in Pure C?**

Yes, it would. I'm too lazy to hand-code a C CPython extension, but it's on my todo list.
Right now, Cypunct is *"fast enough"*, and I can move onto other things in my
daily life.

However, if you want to take on the challenge of rewriting Cypunct in C and having
the exact same functionality as the current Cython version, I'll send you $100 USD.