Henri Sivonen personal blog
It’s not wrong that "🤦🏼♂️".length == 7 (2019)
From time to time, someone shows that in JavaScript the .length of a string containing an emoji results in a number greater than 1 (typically 2) and then proceeds to the conclusion that haha JavaScript is so broken—and is rewarded with many likes. In this post, I will try to convince you that ridiculing JavaScript for…
- Points
- 280
- HN comments
- 844
- Submissions
- 4
- Cited by
- 10 commenters
Software EngineeringWeb & Frontend2023
On Hacker News
| Submitted | Title on HN | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2, 2023 | It’s not wrong that "🤦🏼♂️".length == 7 (2019) by triyambakam | 280 | 303 |
| Sep 9, 2019 | String Lengths in Unicode by panic | 230 | 140 |
| Aug 22, 2025 | It’s not wrong that "\u{1F926}\u{1F3FC}\u200D\u2642\uFE0F".length == 7 (2019) by program | 195 | 274 |
| Mar 26, 2021 | String length functions for single emoji characters evaluate to greater than 1 by kevincox | 116 | 127 |
Cited in comments
Linked from 10 Hacker News comments by 10 different people, from Oct 2019 to Aug 2025.
Most recent:
- chrismorgan · Aug 21, 2025
- llimllib · Feb 5, 2025
- rogerbinns · Apr 26, 2024
- lifthrasiir · Oct 3, 2023
- jcranmer · Oct 2, 2023
