Function that returns the name of a Greek vowel

Question

I'm trying to write a function that will return the name of a Greek vowel: alpha or epsilon etc. I was hoping this could be done by extracting it from the second group in the following regexp (in a function that determines whether a character is a Greek vowel), but I don't know how, if at all, that is possible.

(defun greek-vowel-p (l)
  (eql (string-match "GREEK \\(SMALL\\|CAPITAL\\) LETTER \
\\(ALPHA\\|EPSILON\\|ETA\\|IOTA\\|OMICRON\\|UPSILON\\|OMEGA\\|RHO\\)"
                     (get-char-code-property l 'name))
       0))

How about?: `(car (last (split-string (get-char-code-property ?α 'name))))` — lawlist, Jul 02 '18 at 21:05
The most common pattern for extracting whole matches or subgroups thereof is `(and (string-match ...) (match-string ...))`; see [`(elisp) Searching and Matching`](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Searching-and-Matching.html). — Basil, Jul 02 '18 at 21:19
@Basil, thanks, I tried something like this, but missed the in-string bit. — Toothrot, Jul 02 '18 at 21:33
In your case @Basil's comment translates to something like `(defun my-greek-vowel (char) (and (greek-vowel-p char) (match-string 2 (get-char-code-property char 'name))))`. Please write up an answer and accept it if you have a working version. BTW I am not so sure that I would use `greek-vowel-p` at all if that function is not made by myself. If the code of that function changes it may break your code. Example for a breaking change: Adding a `save-match-data` to `greek-vowel-p`. — Tobias, Jul 02 '18 at 23:36

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 03 '18 at 13:56

Based on comments,

(defun greek-vowel-name (c)
  "Return the name of the Greek vowel character C as a symbol.
The same name is returned regardless of case and diacritics.
If the argument is not a Greek vowel, the value is nil.
The semi-vowel rho is considered a vowel."
  (let ((u (get-char-code-property c 'name)))
    (and (string-match "GREEK \\(?:SMALL\\|CAPITAL\\) LETTER \
\\(ALPHA\\|EPSILON\\|ETA\\|IOTA\\|OMICRON\\|UPSILON\\|OMEGA\\|RHO\\)"
                       u)
         (intern (downcase (match-string 1 u))))))

Function that returns the name of a Greek vowel

1 Answers1