How to convert Japanese half/full width characters using ICU Library

Question

i am not too familiar with java (coming from c++/c#). I have a need for to use java in order to convert some documents from halfwidth japanese charaters to full width.

would someone be kind and provide some example to start with. i have not had luck to finding some sample.

just a note it has to be in Java.

Answer 1

Found this on Japanese blogger Arai's site :

String data1 = "全角ひらがな"; // full-width hiragana
String data2 = "全角カタカナ"; // full-width katakana
String data3 = "半角ｶﾀｶﾅ";    // half-width katakana

Transliterator transliterator = Transliterator.getInstance("Hiragana-Katakana");

System.out.println(transliterator.transliterate(data1));
System.out.println(transliterator.transliterate(data2));
System.out.println(transliterator.transliterate(data3));

This should result in all 3 Japanese strings being transliterated as you would expect. Give this a shot a let me know if it doesn't work.

Answer 2

Have you seen the ICU userguide and ICU APIdoc on the topic? You can use the Transliterator demo to check the behavior, such as "Halfwidth-Fullwidth"

Answer 3

I've created a small, simple library to handle all types of kana conversion in Java, details here

To convert from half-width to full-width, just download the JAR and then write the code like this:

import mariten.kanatools.KanaConverter;

// rest of code...

String half_width = "半角ｶﾀｶﾅ";

int conv_flags = KanaConverter.OP_HAN_KATA_TO_ZEN_KATA;
String full_width = KanaConverter.convertKana(half_width, conv_flags);

System.out.println(full_width)
//半角カタカナ