text-to-identifier 0.1.0a1

A tool that converts arbitrary text (like user input or file names) into valid Python identifiers while preserving as much of the original meaning as possible.

A tool that converts arbitrary text (like user input or file names) into valid Python identifiers while preserving as much of the original meaning as possible.

Installation

pip install text-to-identifier

Usage

# coding=utf-8
from text_to_identifier import text_to_identifier

assert text_to_identifier(u"") == u"_"
assert text_to_identifier(u" \r\n\t") == u"_"
assert text_to_identifier(u"123abc") == u"_123abc"
assert text_to_identifier(u"&abc 123") == u"_abc_123"
assert text_to_identifier(u"  hello  world  $") == u"_hello_world__"
assert text_to_identifier(u"测试@unicode") == u"测试_unicode"

How It Works

First, get_unicode_character_type() categorizes each Unicode character into one of four types:

• LETTER_OR_UNDERSCORE (Unicode category starting with 'L' or underscore _)
• DECIMAL_DIGIT (Unicode category 'Nd')
• SPACE_OR_CONTROL (Unicode categories starting with 'Z' or 'Cc')
• OTHER (all other characters)

Then, it implements the following conversion rules using a state machine:

• The first character must be a letter/underscore. If the first character is a digit, prepend _ to make it valid.
• Subsequent valid characters (letters/underscores/digits) are kept as-is.
• Other characters are replaced with underscores, but whitespace/control character sequences are collapsed into single underscores.
• Ensures the output is non-empty (appends _ if empty).

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please submit pull requests or open issues on the GitHub repository.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.