sinhala-text-converters

A TypeScript/JavaScript library for converting between Singlish (Sinhala written in English) and Unicode Sinhala formats.

Created and maintained by Sinhala Soft Foundation.

Installation

npm install sinhala-text-converters

Usage

TypeScript

import {
  singlishToUnicode,
  unicodeToSinglish,
  convert,
  ConversionOptions
} from 'sinhala-text-converters';

// Convert Singlish to Unicode
const unicode = singlishToUnicode('aayubowan');
console.log(unicode); // Output: ආයුබෝවන්

// Convert Unicode to Singlish
const singlish = unicodeToSinglish('ආයුබෝවන්');
console.log(singlish); // Output: aayubowan

// Use the helper function for conversion
const result = convert('aayubowan', 'singlish', 'unicode');
console.log(result); // Output: ආයුබෝවන්

JavaScript

const {
  singlishToUnicode,
  unicodeToSinglish,
  convert
} = require('sinhala-text-converters');

// Convert Singlish to Unicode
const unicode = singlishToUnicode('aayubowan');
console.log(unicode); // Output: ආයුබෝවන්

// Use the helper function
const result = convert('aayubowan', 'singlish', 'unicode');
console.log(result); // Output: ආයුබෝවන්

API Reference

Functions

singlishToUnicode(text: string, options?: ConversionOptions): string

Converts Singlish (Sinhala written in English) to Unicode Sinhala.

Parameters:

• text - The Singlish text to convert
• options - Optional conversion options (see below)

Returns: The converted Unicode Sinhala text

unicodeToSinglish(text: string, options?: ConversionOptions): string

Converts Unicode Sinhala to Singlish.

Parameters:

• text - The Unicode Sinhala text to convert
• options - Optional conversion options (see below)

Returns: The converted Singlish text

convert(text: string, from: TextFormat, to: TextFormat, options?: ConversionOptions): string

Helper function to convert text between Singlish and Unicode formats.

Parameters:

• text - The text to convert
• from - The source format ('singlish' | 'unicode')
• to - The target format ('singlish' | 'unicode')
• options - Optional conversion options (see below)

Returns: The converted text

Throws: Error if an unsupported conversion direction is requested

Types

TextFormat

type TextFormat = 'singlish' | 'unicode';

ConversionOptions

interface ConversionOptions {
  /**
   * Callback function to handle unexpected inputs or conversion issues.
   * Called when an unexpected character or pattern is encountered during conversion.
   */
  onUnexpectedInput?: (
    input: string,
    position: number,
    context: {
      format: TextFormat;
      direction: 'to' | 'from';
      char?: string;
      pattern?: string;
    }
  ) => string | null | undefined;
}

Handling Unexpected Inputs

You can provide a callback function to handle unexpected characters or patterns during conversion:

const options: ConversionOptions = {
  onUnexpectedInput: (input, position, context) => {
    console.warn(`Unexpected input at position ${position}: ${context.char}`);
    // Return a replacement string, or null/undefined to skip
    return '';
  }
};

const result = singlishToUnicode('hello123', options);

Examples

Basic Conversion

import { singlishToUnicode } from 'sinhala-text-converters';

const result = singlishToUnicode('aayubowan');
console.log(result); // Output: ආයුබෝවන්

Using the Helper Function

import { convert } from 'sinhala-text-converters';

// Convert from Singlish to Unicode
const unicode = convert('aayubowan', 'singlish', 'unicode');
console.log(unicode); // Output: ආයුබෝවන්

// Convert from Unicode to Singlish
const singlish = convert('ආයුබෝවන්', 'unicode', 'singlish');
console.log(singlish); // Output: aayubowan

With Error Handling

import { singlishToUnicode, ConversionOptions } from 'sinhala-text-converters';

const options: ConversionOptions = {
  onUnexpectedInput: (input, position, context) => {
    if (context.char && /[0-9]/.test(context.char)) {
      // Replace numbers with empty string
      return '';
    }
    // For other unexpected characters, skip them
    return null;
  }
};

const result = singlishToUnicode('hello123world', options);

Supported Formats

• Singlish: Sinhala text written using English characters (e.g., "aayubowan")
• Unicode: Standard Unicode Sinhala characters (e.g., "ආයුබෝවන්")

About

This package is created and maintained by Sinhala Soft Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and developing Sinhala language technology.

Copyright and Attribution

Important: All conversion algorithms originated from the Language Technology Research Laboratory - University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC).

• Package Maintainer: Sinhala Soft Foundation
• Original Source: Language Technology Research Laboratory - University of Colombo School of Computing
• Original Website: https://ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/ltrl/services/feconverter
• Copyright: © Language Technology Research Laboratory - University of Colombo School of Computing

All credits for the conversion algorithms go to the authors at UCSC. This package is maintained by Sinhala Soft Foundation.

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Support

For issues and questions, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.