How to convert country code to emoji flag in Java

Since Unicode characters are supported by all major browsers, you should consider using emojis instead of images for displaying countries' flags. Here is a little code snippet that converts country codes (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2) to corresponding emoji flags (Unicode regional indicator symbols) in Java:

public String countryCodeToEmoji(String code) {

    // offset between uppercase ASCII and regional indicator symbols
    int OFFSET = 127397;

    // validate code
    if(code == null || code.length() != 2) {
        return "";
    }

    //fix for uk -> gb
    if (code.equalsIgnoreCase("uk")) {
        code = "gb";
    }

    // convert code to uppercase
    code = code.toUpperCase();

    StringBuilder emojiStr = new StringBuilder();

    //loop all characters
    for (int i = 0; i < code.length(); i++) {
        emojiStr.appendCodePoint(code.charAt(i) + OFFSET);
    }

    // return emoji
    return emojiStr.toString();
}

Let's use the above function to get emoji flags for the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Pakistan:

System.out.println(countryCodeToEmoji("US")); // πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
System.out.println(countryCodeToEmoji("UK")); // πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§
System.out.println(countryCodeToEmoji("DE")); // πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ
System.out.println(countryCodeToEmoji("PK")); // πŸ‡΅πŸ‡°

✌️ Like this article? Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn. You can also subscribe to RSS Feed.

You might also like...

Digital Ocean

The simplest cloud platform for developers & teams. Start with a $200 free credit.

Buy me a coffee β˜•

If you enjoy reading my articles and want to help me out paying bills, please consider buying me a coffee ($5) or two ($10). I will be highly grateful to you ✌️

Enter the number of coffees below:

✨ Learn to build modern web applications using JavaScript and Spring Boot

I started this blog as a place to share everything I have learned in the last decade. I write about modern JavaScript, Node.js, Spring Boot, core Java, RESTful APIs, and all things web development.

The newsletter is sent every week and includes early access to clear, concise, and easy-to-follow tutorials, and other stuff I think you'd enjoy! No spam ever, unsubscribe at any time.