Can I use an emoji as part of a string in Solidity?

Question

Can I use an emoji in Solidity?

Answer 1

You can use an emoji directly in a string literal in Solidity versions 0.6.12 and earlier. You cannot do so with version 0.7.0 or later.

Solidity version 0.7.0 updated the parser to disallow non-printable characters in string literals. Instead, they introduced the concept of Unicode string literals, such as unicode"😃", which allows you to use emojis.

Examples

0.7.0 and higher

pragma solidity >=0.7.0;

contract MyContract {
    function myFunction() public {
        string memory myString = unicode"This is an emoji 😃";
    }   
}

0.6.12 and lower

pragma solidity <=0.6.12;

contract MyContract {
    function myFunction() public {
        string memory myString = "This is an emoji 😀";
    }   
}