encoding - Emoji value range

Question

I was trying to take out all emoji chars out of a string (like a sanitizer). But I cannot find a complete set of emoji values.

What is the complete set of emoji chars' UTF16 values?

Answer 1

The Unicode standard's Unicode? Technical Report #51 includes a list of emoji (emoji-data.txt):

...
21A9 ;  text ;  L1 ;    none ;  j   # V1.1 (?) LEFTWARDS ARROW WITH HOOK
21AA ;  text ;  L1 ;    none ;  j   # V1.1 (?) RIGHTWARDS ARROW WITH HOOK
231A ;  emoji ; L1 ;    none ;  j   # V1.1 (?) WATCH
231B ;  emoji ; L1 ;    none ;  j   # V1.1 (?) HOURGLASS
...

I believe you would want to remove each character listed in this document which had a Default_Emoji_Style of emoji.

There is no way, other than reference to a definition list like this, to identify the emoji characters in Unicode. As the reference to the FAQ says, they are spread throughout different blocks.