README.md

0x04. UTF-8 Validation

Algorithm Python

Resources

Read or watch:

• UTF-8
• Characters, Symbols, and the Unicode Miracle

Requirements

General

• Allowed editors: vi, vim, emacs
• All your files will be interpreted/compiled on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS using python3 (version 3.4.3)
• All your files should end with a new line
• The first line of all your files should be exactly #!/usr/bin/python3
• A README.md file, at the root of the folder of the project, is mandatory
• Your code should use the PEP 8 style (version 1.7.x)
• All your files must be executable

Tasks

0. UTF-8 Validation

Write a method that determines if a given data set represents a valid UTF-8 encoding.

• Prototype: def validUTF8(data)
• Return: True if data is a valid UTF-8 encoding, else return False
• A character in UTF-8 can be 1 to 4 bytes long
• The data set can contain multiple characters
• The data will be represented by a list of integers
• Each integer represents 1 byte of data, therefore you only need to handle the 8 least significant bits of each integer

carrie@ubuntu:~/0x04-utf8_validation$ cat 0-main.py
#!/usr/bin/python3
"""
Main file for testing
"""

validUTF8 = __import__('0-validate_utf8').validUTF8

data = [65]
print(validUTF8(data))

data = [80, 121, 116, 104, 111, 110, 32, 105, 115, 32, 99, 111, 111, 108, 33]
print(validUTF8(data))

data = [229, 65, 127, 256]
print(validUTF8(data))

carrie@ubuntu:~/0x04-utf8_validation$

carrie@ubuntu:~/0x04-utf8_validation$ ./0-main.py
True
True
False
carrie@ubuntu:~/0x04-utf8_validation$

Pseudocode

1. Initialize variable `remainingBytes` to 0
2. Define constant `BIT7` as (1 << 7)  # Represents the leftmost bit (bit 7)
3. Define constant `BIT6` as (1 << 6)  # Represents the second leftmost bit (bit 6)
4. Loop through each `byte` in the `data` list:
    5. Initialize `bitPosition` to `BIT7`
    6. If `remainingBytes` is 0:
        7. While `byte` & `bitPosition` is True:
            8. Increment `remainingBytes` by 1
            9. Right-shift `bitPosition` by 1
        10. If `remainingBytes` is still 0, continue to the next byte
        11. If `remainingBytes` is 1 or greater than 4, return False
    12. Else (there are still bytes left to complete a character):
        13. If `byte` & `BIT7` is False or `byte` & `BIT6` is True:
            14. Return False
    15. Decrement `remainingBytes` by 1
16. If `remainingBytes` is 0, return True, indicating a valid UTF-8 encoding
17. Otherwise, return False