> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.abbyy.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Character String > Set Character String element properties in the FlexiLayout language: alphabets, regular expressions, quality limits, word counts, and gap constraints. The **Character String** element supports the following parameters in the FlexiLayout language. ## Character String parameters | Parameter | Description | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `Void AllowEmbeddedHypotheses( Logic )` | See [**Character String**](/flexi-capture/fls/template/character-chain), **Allow embedded hypotheses**. | | `Void MinQuality( Real )` | Sets the minimum quality of the hypothesis. Hypotheses with a quality lower than this minimum are discarded. | | `Void MaxNonDefinedCount( Real )` | See [**Character String**](/flexi-capture/fls/template/character-chain), **Percentage of non-alphabet characters**. | | `Void MaxWordBreakCount( Real )` | The maximum number of word ends in the line. The line is divided into words based on the **Detect words by interword space** parameter (see the **Element Properties** dialog box, [**Character String**](/flexi-capture/fls/template/character-chain) tab). The parameter is specified as a ratio: `[number of word ends]/[number of characters in the string]`. | | `Void MinInterwordSpace( Distance )` | Enables division into words based on the width of the space (see the **Element Properties** dialog box, [**Character String**](/flexi-capture/fls/template/character-chain) tab, **Detect words by interword space**) and specifies the minimum width of the space to `Distance` (the **Min interword space** parameter). | | `Void WordsCount( Int, Int, Int, Int )` | See the **Element Properties** dialog box, [**Character String**](/flexi-capture/fls/template/character-chain) tab, **Words count**. | | `Void TotalChainLength( Int, Int, Int, Int )` | See [**Character String**](/flexi-capture/fls/template/character-chain), **Characters Count**. | | `Void TotalGapLength( Distance, Distance, Distance, Distance )` | Specifies the maximum allowed total length of spaces in the string as a [fuzzy interval](/flexi-capture/fls/template/fuzzy-interval). The quality of the hypotheses is assessed based on the total length of the spaces. | | `Void MaxGapInLine( Distance )` | Sets the maximum distance between neighboring characters. When generating a hypothesis, FlexiLayout Studio adds characters to the hypothesis as long as the distance between two neighboring characters does not exceed `MaxGapInLine`. See also [**Character String**](/flexi-capture/fls/template/character-chain), **Max space length**. | | `Void MaxRelativeGapInLine( Real )` | The maximum distance between neighboring characters expressed as a percentage of the line height. | | `Void AllowChoppedWords( Logic )` | This flag specifies whether text objects that do not fit entirely within the left and right boundaries should be included in the hypothesis. The default value is `true`. | | `Void MaxXOutsidePart( Real )` | Specifies the part of the character that may extend beyond the search area horizontally. The part of the character is specified by a number from `0` to `1`. Characters that have the specified or smaller part outside the search area are included in the hypothesis. | | `Void MaxYOutsidePart( Real )` | Specifies the part of the character that may extend beyond the search area vertically. The part of the character is specified by a number from `0` to `1`. Characters that have the specified or smaller part outside the search area are included in the hypothesis. | | `Void AddAlphabet( String alphabet, Real portion, Logic isRestrictionStrong )` | Sets the alphabet and the allowed percentage of alphabet characters in the hypothesis. The `isRestrictionStrong` flag specifies whether hypotheses that exceed the permissible percentage of alphabet characters must be considered valid. If the flag is set to `true`, hypotheses that exceed the permissible percentage are discarded. If the flag is set to `false`, excess symbols are considered to belong to no alphabet. The default setting is `true`. | | `Void RegularExpression( String )` | Sets the regular expression defining the text of the hypothesis. | | `Void WholeWordMode ( Logic )` | This flag specifies whether only whole words must be considered as valid hypotheses. If the flag is set to `true`, hypotheses made up of parts of words are discarded. The default setting is `false`. **Note.** This property is different from `AllowChoppedWords` in that `AllowChoppedWords` affects only formulation of hypotheses made up of words on the boundary of the search area, whereas `WholeWordMode` affects formulation of all hypotheses. | | `Void RegularExpressionFromDB( String connectionString, String selectString, Int maxRecordsCount = 1000 )` | Uses a database to set the regular expression defining the text of the hypotheses. For more information, see [Databases and text files in the FlexiLayout language](/flexi-capture/fls/language/bd-textfiles). The `connectionString` argument sets the string for connecting to the database. The `selectString` argument sets an SQL query, which starts with the `SELECT` command. To speed up the search, only the first `maxRecordsCount` variants are used (the default setting is 1000). | | `Void RegularExpressionFromFile( String fileName, Int maxRecordsCount = 1000 )` | Uses a text file to set the regular expression defining the text of the hypotheses. For more information, see [Databases and text files in the FlexiLayout language](/flexi-capture/fls/language/bd-textfiles). The `fileName` argument sets the name of the text file. To speed up the search, only the first `maxRecordsCount` variants are used (the default setting is 1000). | | `Void Width( Distance, Distance, Distance, Distance )` | The width of the hypothesis specified as a [fuzzy interval](/flexi-capture/fls/template/fuzzy-interval). | | `Void Height( Distance, Distance, Distance, Distance )` | The height of the hypothesis specified as a [fuzzy interval](/flexi-capture/fls/template/fuzzy-interval). | | `Void TrimSymbols( String )` | Specifies the characters to be trimmed at the beginning and at the end of a hypothesis. | | `Void SimilarSymbolQuality( Real )` | Specifies a coefficient by which the quality of a hypothesis should be multiplied if it includes a character from the list of characters that look like those in the alphabet. | | `Void AllowedTextRotations ( TextRotations )` | Specifies a set of orientations of the recognized text in which an element search is allowed. | ## Parameter examples ### `AllowEmbeddedHypotheses` The following code tells FlexiLayout Studio to generate the longest hypothesis. ```text theme={null} AllowEmbeddedHypotheses (False); ``` ### `MinQuality` The following code tells FlexiLayout Studio to ignore hypotheses whose quality is lower than 0.95. ```text theme={null} MinQuality: 0.95; ``` ### `MaxNonDefinedCount` The following code tells FlexiLayout Studio that the string may contain up to 30% of characters that do not belong to any of the specified alphabets. ```text theme={null} MaxNonDefinedCount (0.3); ``` ### `TotalChainLength` The following code tells FlexiLayout Studio to look for a line 5 to 10 characters long. ```text theme={null} TotalChainLength (4, 5, 10, 11); ``` ### `MaxGapInLine` The following code tells FlexiLayout Studio that the maximum distance between neighboring characters may not exceed 5 mm. Otherwise, a null hypothesis is generated. ```text theme={null} MaxGapInLine (5mm); ``` ### `AddAlphabet` The following code tells FlexiLayout Studio to add an alphabet consisting of the characters №, #, %, and `*`, whose percentage in the hypothesis may not exceed 10%. ```text theme={null} AddAlphabet ("№#%*", 0.1, True); ``` You can only add characters that are not part of any of the alphabets specified for the current element. ### `RegularExpression` The following regular expression looks for a string where characters may be arranged in one of two ways: 2 digits, a hyphen (`-`), 1 digit; or the letter `N`, a digit from 1 to 5, a forward slash (`/`), 1 to 3 digits. ```text theme={null} RegularExpression: ("([0-9]{2}[-][0-9])|([N][1-5][/][0-9]{1-3})"); ``` This is equivalent to: ```text theme={null} RegularExpression: ("([0-9]{2}\"-\"[0-9])|(\"N\"[1-5]\"/\"[0-9]{1-3})"); ```