Column Formula to convert Unicode to symbol

[#1]

I want to make JMP table that will have a column with the unicode shortcut for a symbol and then have JMP display the symbol (wiht a formula) in another column.  In the screen shot below, I would like the column Displayed to have formula that uses the column Unicode as an input and that shows the displayed symbol result.

The table below was created by manually typing the Alt+Code.

I can't figure out how to do that in a column formula. Any help would be appreciated

[#2]

something like

beta = "\!U0392";
theta = "\!U0398";

Or maybe

Open(
	"http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/block/greek_and_coptic/list.htm",
	HTML Table( 1, Column Names( 1 ), Data Starts( 2 ) )
);

which makes

Table loaded from URL

I like that site for finding characters; make JMP's \!U version from theirs

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/3b2/index.htm 

They show U+0392, JMP uses \!U0392

[#3]

Or, you might need something like this

txt = "038F";
code = Hex To Number( txt );
mat = J( 1, 1, code );
blob = Matrix To Blob( mat, "int", 2, "little" );
string = Blob To Char( blob, "utf-16" );
Show( string );

string = "Ώ";

which, if your browser supports it, looks like http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/038f/index.htm 

The JSL above takes the printable hex representation in txt, gets the number for it, makes a 1-element matrix (could be more if you have more) for Matrix to Blob, and uses the blob holding the number of the character in UTF-16 form to make an actual Unicode character.

Or, you could put the hex into a JSL string with the \!U and parse it.

[#4]

Hi @Craige_Hales ,

  Thanks for the info on this, I found it quite interesting and helpful.

  One thing I don't get though is how to force the \!U command with the hex. Let's say that you have a column like from the website that you reference earlier, where the entries are all U+hex, e.g. Beta = U+03D0

  You can split up the text in the column with something like

Word(1,:Character,"+")||Word(2,:Character,"+")

 Which would give you the output U03D0.

But, when I try to put that in a Parse() command with the \!U in front, JMP complains at me. I get that Parse("\!U03D0") gives beta. What's challenging me is that I can't concatenate the \!U to the hex code. For example, I would try

Parse("\!U"||Word(1,:Character,"+")||Word(2,:Character,"+"));

JMP complains. What I'd like the stuff inside the Parse command to be is literally "\!U03D0" so that when it runs parse on it, it actually evaluates it and returns beta. I'm just trying to think of how to do this as a column formula rather than a separate JSL script.

Thanks!,

DS

[#5]

escapes!

hex = "03D0";

uni = "\[\!U]\";
// or
// uni = "\!\!U";

quotationmark = "\!"";

beta = eval(parse( quotationmark || uni || hex || quotationmark ));

Building the string \!U requires escapes so JMP won't try to find hex after the U, before you put it there. That happens at parse time, not at run time, so once the string is built, in uni above, it is just normal text. Until parse  scans the string again. But to do that we need a valid snippet of JSL, which will be "\!U03d0", including the quotation marks. To get a quotation mark, more escapes! The string parses, then evaluates to a Unicode character. The result of the eval is the Unicode character, and it is assigned to beta.

The first escape uses \[ ... ]\ to mean "don't interpret anything in between". The second one uses \!\ to make a literal \, then the ! U are just regular characters.

[#6]

@Craige_Hales,

A wonderful example and explanation of what happens at parse time versus run time.

Stan

[#7]

Hi @Craige_Hales ,

  Thanks for the explanation on how to force the "\!" escape. I had tried different options, but wasn't getting them to work quite right, but that explanation helped to see how things needed to be modified with both the escape and concatenate.

Thanks!,

DS