From 864d769d888e49621849c8ad616d794f099e713f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Michiel van Slobbe <michiel.van.slobbe@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2026 06:18:21 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Implement ascii_downcase and ascii_upcase in C (#3689)

Both were defined as explode | map(...) | implode, which took 4 seconds
on a 10 MB string, about 90 times as long as parsing it.

Change the case of A-Z or a-z a byte at a time in C, copying multibyte
UTF-8 sequences unchanged, so the output stays the same and the 10 MB
case now takes about 60 ms including parsing. On a non-string input the
error now names the function, "ascii_downcase input must be a string",
instead of "explode input must be a string".
---
 src/builtin.c  | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/builtin.jq |  6 ------
 tests/jq.test  | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 50 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/builtin.c b/src/builtin.c
index 4261c30a..7d6f775d 100644
--- a/src/builtin.c
+++ b/src/builtin.c
@@ -1355,6 +1355,36 @@ static jv f_string_explode(jq_state *jq, jv a) {
   return jv_string_explode(a);
 }
 
+// Only the letters from..to change case. Bytes of multibyte UTF-8 sequences
+// are all >= 0x80, so they are copied unchanged.
+static void ascii_case_copy(char *dst, const char *src, int len, char from,
+                            char to) {
+  for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+    char c = src[i];
+    dst[i] = (c >= from && c <= to) ? c ^ 0x20 : c; // flip case: 'A' <-> 'a'
+  }
+}
+
+static jv ascii_case(jv input, char from, char to, const char *errmsg) {
+  if (jv_get_kind(input) != JV_KIND_STRING)
+    return ret_error(input, jv_string(errmsg));
+  int len = jv_string_length_bytes(jv_copy(input));
+  char *result = jv_mem_alloc((size_t)len + 1);
+  ascii_case_copy(result, jv_string_value(input), len, from, to);
+  jv ret = jv_string_sized(result, len);
+  free(result);
+  jv_free(input);
+  return ret;
+}
+
+static jv f_ascii_downcase(jq_state *jq, jv input) {
+  return ascii_case(input, 'A', 'Z', "ascii_downcase input must be a string");
+}
+
+static jv f_ascii_upcase(jq_state *jq, jv input) {
+  return ascii_case(input, 'a', 'z', "ascii_upcase input must be a string");
+}
+
 static jv f_string_indexes(jq_state *jq, jv a, jv b) {
   if (jv_get_kind(a) != JV_KIND_STRING) {
     jv_free(b);
@@ -2015,6 +2045,8 @@ BINOPS
   CFUNC(f_string_split, "split", 2),
   CFUNC(f_string_explode, "explode", 1),
   CFUNC(f_string_implode, "implode", 1),
+  CFUNC(f_ascii_downcase, "ascii_downcase", 1),
+  CFUNC(f_ascii_upcase, "ascii_upcase", 1),
   CFUNC(f_string_indexes, "_strindices", 2),
   CFUNC(f_string_trim, "trim", 1),
   CFUNC(f_string_ltrim, "ltrim", 1),
diff --git a/src/builtin.jq b/src/builtin.jq
index 78783143..d6ae891c 100644
--- a/src/builtin.jq
+++ b/src/builtin.jq
@@ -184,12 +184,6 @@ def repeat(exp):
          exp, _repeat;
      _repeat;
 def inputs: try repeat(input) catch if .=="break" then empty else error end;
-# like ruby's downcase - only characters A to Z are affected
-def ascii_downcase:
-  explode | map( if 65 <= . and . <= 90 then . + 32  else . end) | implode;
-# like ruby's upcase - only characters a to z are affected
-def ascii_upcase:
-  explode | map( if 97 <= . and . <= 122 then . - 32  else . end) | implode;
 
 # Streaming utilities
 def truncate_stream(stream):
diff --git a/tests/jq.test b/tests/jq.test
index 557432d9..6086f376 100644
--- a/tests/jq.test
+++ b/tests/jq.test
@@ -1888,6 +1888,24 @@ ascii_upcase
 "useful but not for é"
 "USEFUL BUT NOT FOR é"
 
+# Only A-Z and a-z change; the neighbouring bytes @ [ ` { and non-ASCII do not
+[ascii_downcase, ascii_upcase]
+"@AZ[`az{ ÀÉé Dž 日本 😀 0123456789 THE QUICK brown fox JUMPS over"
+["@az[`az{ ÀÉé Dž 日本 😀 0123456789 the quick brown fox jumps over","@AZ[`AZ{ ÀÉé Dž 日本 😀 0123456789 THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER"]
+
+[ascii_downcase, ascii_upcase]
+""
+["",""]
+
+# An embedded NUL does not end the string
+[ascii_downcase, ascii_upcase]
+"A\u0000z"
+["a\u0000z","A\u0000Z"]
+
+[.[] | try ascii_downcase catch ., try ascii_upcase catch .]
+[null, ["A"]]
+["ascii_downcase input must be a string","ascii_upcase input must be a string","ascii_downcase input must be a string","ascii_upcase input must be a string"]
+
 bsearch(0,1,2,3,4)
 [1,2,3]
 -1