Golang : convert rune to unicode hexadecimal value and back to rune character

There are times when we need to convert a rune to unicode hexadecimal style for storage purpose, encryption, manipulation and etc. Below is a short example on how to convert a rune to unicode hexadecimal value and how to convert unicode hexadecimal value back to rune character.

 package main

 import (
 "fmt"
 "strconv"
 )

 func main() {

 // translate character to rune
 r := rune('黄')

 // extra the unicode \uxxxx value
 unicode := strconv.QuoteRuneToASCII(r)


 fmt.Println(string(r) + " unicode hex value is : ", unicode)

 // convert back unicode to rune

 // this WILL NOT work, it just prints out the unicode string
 fmt.Println("\"\\u" + unicode[3:len(unicode)-1] + "\"")

 // strangely, this will work
 fmt.Println("\u9ec4")



 // therefore, to convert a unicode back to rune
 // use strconv.Unquote

 char, _ := strconv.Unquote(unicode)

 fmt.Println(unicode + " rune character is : ", char)

 }

Output :

黄 unicode hex value is : '\u9ec4'

"\u9ec4"

黄

'\u9ec4' rune character is : 黄

Hope you may find this short tutorial useful in dealing with unicode and rune.

Reference :

http://golang.org/pkg/fmt/