* Word or character counting functionality. Count words or characters in a
* @output wp-admin/js/word-count.js
* @namespace wp.utils.wordcounter
* @param {Object} settings Optional. Key-value object containing overrides for
* @param {RegExp} settings.HTMLRegExp Optional. Regular expression to find HTML elements.
* @param {RegExp} settings.HTMLcommentRegExp Optional. Regular expression to find HTML comments.
* @param {RegExp} settings.spaceRegExp Optional. Regular expression to find irregular space
* @param {RegExp} settings.HTMLEntityRegExp Optional. Regular expression to find HTML entities.
* @param {RegExp} settings.connectorRegExp Optional. Regular expression to find connectors that
* @param {RegExp} settings.removeRegExp Optional. Regular expression to find remove unwanted
* characters to reduce false-positives.
* @param {RegExp} settings.astralRegExp Optional. Regular expression to find unwanted
* characters when searching for non-words.
* @param {RegExp} settings.wordsRegExp Optional. Regular expression to find words by spaces.
* @param {RegExp} settings.characters_excluding_spacesRegExp Optional. Regular expression to find characters which
* @param {RegExp} settings.characters_including_spacesRegExp Optional. Regular expression to find characters
* @param {RegExp} settings.shortcodesRegExp Optional. Regular expression to find shortcodes.
* @param {Object} settings.l10n Optional. Localization object containing specific
* configuration for the current localization.
* @param {string} settings.l10n.type Optional. Method of finding words to count.
* @param {Array} settings.l10n.shortcodes Optional. Array of shortcodes that should be removed
function WordCounter( settings ) {
// Apply provided settings to object settings.
for ( key in settings ) {
// Only apply valid settings.
if ( settings.hasOwnProperty( key ) ) {
this.settings[ key ] = settings[ key ];
shortcodes = this.settings.l10n.shortcodes;
// If there are any localization shortcodes, add this as type in the settings.
if ( shortcodes && shortcodes.length ) {
this.settings.shortcodesRegExp = new RegExp( '\\[\\/?(?:' + shortcodes.join( '|' ) + ')[^\\]]*?\\]', 'g' );
WordCounter.prototype.settings = {
HTMLRegExp: /<\/?[a-z][^>]*?>/gi,
HTMLcommentRegExp: /<!--[\s\S]*?-->/g,
spaceRegExp: / | /gi,
HTMLEntityRegExp: /&\S+?;/g,
connectorRegExp: /--|\u2014/g,
// Characters to be removed from input text.
removeRegExp: new RegExp( [
// Basic Latin (extract).
'\u0021-\u0040\u005B-\u0060\u007B-\u007E',
// Latin-1 Supplement (extract).
'\u0080-\u00BF\u00D7\u00F7',
* The following range consists of:
* Superscripts and Subscripts
* Combining Diacritical Marks for Symbols
* Miscellaneous Technical
* Optical Character Recognition
* Miscellaneous Mathematical Symbols-A
* Miscellaneous Mathematical Symbols-B
* Supplemental Mathematical Operators
* Miscellaneous Symbols and Arrows
// Supplemental Punctuation.
// Remove UTF-16 surrogate points, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16#U.2BD800_to_U.2BDFFF
astralRegExp: /[\uD800-\uDBFF][\uDC00-\uDFFF]/g,
characters_excluding_spacesRegExp: /\S/g,
* Match anything that is not a formatting character, excluding:
* \u2028 = line separator
* \u2029 = paragraph separator
characters_including_spacesRegExp: /[^\f\n\r\t\v\u00AD\u2028\u2029]/g,
l10n: window.wordCountL10n || {}
* Counts the number of words (or other specified type) in the specified text.
* @memberof wp.utils.wordcounter
* @param {string} text Text to count elements in.
* @param {string} type Optional. Specify type to use.
* @return {number} The number of items counted.
WordCounter.prototype.count = function( text, type ) {
// Use default type if none was provided.
type = type || this.settings.l10n.type;
// Sanitize type to one of three possibilities: 'words', 'characters_excluding_spaces' or 'characters_including_spaces'.
if ( type !== 'characters_excluding_spaces' && type !== 'characters_including_spaces' ) {
// If we have any text at all.
// Replace all HTML with a new-line.
text = text.replace( this.settings.HTMLRegExp, '\n' );
// Remove all HTML comments.
text = text.replace( this.settings.HTMLcommentRegExp, '' );
// If a shortcode regular expression has been provided use it to remove shortcodes.
if ( this.settings.shortcodesRegExp ) {
text = text.replace( this.settings.shortcodesRegExp, '\n' );
// Normalize non-breaking space to a normal space.
text = text.replace( this.settings.spaceRegExp, ' ' );
if ( type === 'words' ) {
text = text.replace( this.settings.HTMLEntityRegExp, '' );
// Convert connectors to spaces to count attached text as words.
text = text.replace( this.settings.connectorRegExp, ' ' );
// Remove unwanted characters.
text = text.replace( this.settings.removeRegExp, '' );
// Convert HTML Entities to "a".
text = text.replace( this.settings.HTMLEntityRegExp, 'a' );
// Remove surrogate points.
text = text.replace( this.settings.astralRegExp, 'a' );
// Match with the selected type regular expression to count the items.
text = text.match( this.settings[ type + 'RegExp' ] );
// If we have any matches, set the count to the number of items found.
// Add the WordCounter to the WP Utils.
window.wp = window.wp || {};
window.wp.utils = window.wp.utils || {};
window.wp.utils.WordCounter = WordCounter;