Add Unicode symbols (emoji flags)

[NilsEnevoldsen]

This adds Unicode region subtags as pairs of Regional Indicator Symbols. Region subtags represent regions, not flags. When composed of Regional Indicator Symbols, they are displayed as flags on most systems, but on Windows they are displayed as pairs of letters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Indicator_Symbol

Unicode lists valid Unicode region subtags. They are based on ISO 3166-1 alpha-2.

https://unicode.org/reports/tr51/#Flags

> countrycode('Antarctica','country.name','unicode.symbol')
[1] "\U0001f1e6\U0001f1f6"
> countrycode('Antarctica','country.name','unicode.symbol') %>% utf8::utf8_print()
[1] "🇦🇶​"
> countrycode('🇦🇶','unicode.symbol','country.name')
[1] "Antarctica"

[NilsEnevoldsen]

Fixes #224

[cjyetman]

Ha! This is cool. Thanks @NilsEnevoldsen!

cat(countrycode('Germany', 'country.name', 'unicode.symbol'))
#> 🇩🇪

[vincentarelbundock]

Yeah, this is very cool!

I think it might be nice to add this to the README because it's a cute "showy" feature. Does anyone know how to render flags in a plot? I'm thinking of something like this:

library(countrycode)
countries <- c('Canada', 'Germany', 'Thailand')
flags <- countrycode(countries, 'country.name', 'unicode.symbol')
barplot(1:3, names.arg = flags)

But this only shows me emptys squares instead of the flags.

[NilsEnevoldsen]

R graphics devices are pretty bad with Unicode, so I have mixed feelings about talking this feature up too much. If you export the graph to an SVG and display the graph with, say, a web browser, it should work better. Maybe Unicode fonts work better with Shiny? (I don't know; I haven't used Shiny much.)

library(ggplot2)
library(gridSVG)
ggplot() + annotate("text", x = 0, y = 0, label = "🇦🇶", size = 32)
grid.export("emoji.svg")

Even Unicode on the command prompt can depend on the OS. Here's what it looks like for me on macOS:

> countrycode('Antarctica','country.name','unicode.symbol')
[1] "\U0001f1e6\U0001f1f6"
> countrycode('Antarctica','country.name','unicode.symbol') %>% utf8::utf8_print()
[1] "🇦🇶​"

[NilsEnevoldsen]

@vincentarelbundock To modify your example,

countries <- c('Canada', 'Germany', 'Thailand')
flags <- countrycode::countrycode(countries, 'country.name', 'unicode.symbol')
barplot(1:3, names.arg = flags)
gridGraphics::grid.echo()
gridSVG::grid.export("barplot.svg")

[vincentarelbundock]

Thanks @NilsEnevoldsen . I agree that this is too complicated and system-dependent for us to offer a comprehensive solution. I still think the feature is really cool, so I included a section to the README where I showcase it in a gt table. Since that's HTML output, everything looks great:

https://github.com/vincentarelbundock/countrycode#unicode-flags

Thanks again!

[NilsEnevoldsen]

Excellent compromise. It does add a bit of color to the docs.

Note that embedding unicode characters in R graphics is possible, but it can be tricky. We won't be able to offer support with that. Good luck!

Seems reasonable.

[NilsEnevoldsen]

@vincentarelbundock Oh, if you wanted to, you could add the advice that if your output looks like "\U0001f1e6\U0001f1f6" then you can try piping the output to %>% utf8::utf8_print(). That will cover a lot of cases without dipping into the complexity of graphics devices.

As a rule of thumb, if your output looks like □□□□ (boxes) then you're in trouble, but if it looks like "\U0001f1e6\U0001f1f6" then there might be a simple solution.

Up to you whether you think that's worthwhile.

[vincentarelbundock]

good idea. done.