Urdu RTL Character Detector

What the Urdu RTL Character Detector Does

The Urdu RTL Character Detector looks at every character in your text and reports its direction. It counts the right-to-left letters, such as Urdu, the left-to-right letters, such as English, the numbers, which have their own weak direction, and the neutral characters like spaces and punctuation.

This tells you the make-up of a piece of text by direction, which is the first thing to know when it does not lay out as expected.

Everything runs on your own device. Your text is never uploaded or stored, so it stays private while you scan it.

How to Detect Direction

1. Paste your text. Enter a mix of Urdu, English, and numbers.
2. Read the counts. See how many characters of each direction there are.
3. Check the map. See the direction of each character in order.
4. Copy or download. Copy the report, or save it as a text file.

The Direction Classes

Each character falls into a class. Right-to-left covers Urdu and other right-to-left letters. Left-to-right covers English and other left-to-right letters. Numbers are a weak class of their own, since they run left to right even inside right-to-left text. Neutral covers spaces, punctuation, and symbols.

Base Direction

The base direction is the overall direction of the text, decided by the first strong character. If the text starts with an Urdu letter, the base is right-to-left, and everything is laid out inside that flow. If it starts with an English letter, the base is left-to-right.

The Direction Map

The direction map shows a tag for each character in order, so you can see exactly where the text switches from one direction to another. A run of right-to-left tags followed by a left-to-right run marks a switch point.

A Worked Example

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The result above comes from the same function the tool uses, so it reflects real behavior. Press Load Example to try it.

Who Uses This Detector

Developers use it to see the direction make-up of a string. Designers use it to check labels. Anyone whose text lays out oddly uses it to find the direction.

Accuracy and Limits

The detector classifies each character by its Unicode range into right-to-left, left-to-right, number, or neutral, and gives the base direction from the first strong character. It reports the characters; to see how they order on the page, use the live preview or the bidirectional text tester.

Good to know: a number always runs left to right, even inside right-to-left text.

Your Data Stays Private

The detector runs fully in your browser with standard web technology. Your text is not uploaded or stored, and it is not sent to any analytics service. Only your star rating is sent, to record the tool’s rating. When you close the page, your text is gone.