Charset C# Reference Documentation

Charset

Current Version: 10.0.0

Requires Chilkat Bundle License

A component/class for converting character data from one encoding to another. This software is unique in that the data required for converting to/from the supported charsets is entirely embedded witin the Chilkat DLL/library. It does not depend on what code pages may or may not be installed on a particular computer. This allows programs to operate correctly regardless of the locale, OS version, or other factors.

Object Creation

Chilkat.Charset obj = new Chilkat.Charset();

Properties

AltToCharset

public string AltToCharset {get; set; }

If the ErrorAction property is set to 6, then this property controls how errors are handled. It specifies an alternate "To" charset. When a character in the input data cannot be converted to the target charset, an attempt is made to convert it to the AltToCharset. If that fails, the input character is dropped.

DebugLogFilePath

public string DebugLogFilePath {get; set; }

If set to a file path, causes each Chilkat method or property call to automatically append it's LastErrorText to the specified log file. The information is appended such that if a hang or crash occurs, it is possible to see the context in which the problem occurred, as well as a history of all Chilkat calls up to the point of the problem. The VerboseLogging property can be set to provide more detailed information.

This property is typically used for debugging the rare cases where a Chilkat method call hangs or generates an exception that halts program execution (i.e. crashes). A hang or crash should generally never happen. The typical causes of a hang are:

a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.

More Information and Examples

(.NET Core C#) Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.(C#) Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.(Mono C#) Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.(PowerShell) Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.

ErrorAction

public int ErrorAction {get; set; }

Controls how errors are handled. When a character in the input data cannot be converted to the target charset, the action taken is controlled by this property. The possible settings are: (0) drop the error characters, (1) substitute the data set by the SetErrorBytes or SetErrorString method, (2) convert to a hex-escaped string (&#xXXXX), (3) RESERVED, (4) RESERVED, (5) RESERVED, (6) convert the error character to the AltToCharset instead, if that fails then drop the character, (7) Pass non-convertible characters to the output unchanged.

FromCharset

public string FromCharset {get; set; }

Tells the charset converter the charset of the input data for a conversion. Possible values are:

<font size="2" face="MS Sans Serif">
us-ascii
unicode  (also known as UTF16LE or simply UTF16)
unicodefffe  (also known as UTF16BE)
ebcdic
iso-8859-1
iso-8859-2
iso-8859-3
iso-8859-4
iso-8859-5
iso-8859-6
iso-8859-7
iso-8859-8
iso-8859-9
iso-8859-13
iso-8859-15
windows-874
windows-1250
windows-1251
windows-1252
windows-1253
windows-1254
windows-1255
windows-1256
windows-1257
windows-1258
utf-7
utf-8
utf-32
utf-32be
shift_jis
gb2312
ks_c_5601-1987
big5
iso-2022-jp
iso-2022-kr
euc-jp
euc-kr
macintosh
x-mac-japanese
x-mac-chinesetrad
x-mac-korean
x-mac-arabic
x-mac-hebrew
x-mac-greek
x-mac-cyrillic
x-mac-chinesesimp
x-mac-romanian
x-mac-ukrainian
x-mac-thai
x-mac-ce
x-mac-icelandic
x-mac-turkish
x-mac-croatian
asmo-708
dos-720
dos-862
ibm01140
ibm01141
ibm01142
ibm01143
ibm01144
ibm01145
ibm01146
ibm01147
ibm01148
ibm01149
ibm037
ibm437
ibm500
ibm737
ibm775
ibm850
ibm852
ibm855
ibm857
ibm00858
ibm860
ibm861
ibm863
ibm864
ibm865
cp866
ibm869
ibm870
cp875
koi8-r
koi8-u
</font>

LastErrorHtml

public string LastErrorHtml {get; }

Provides information in HTML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

LastErrorText

public string LastErrorText {get; }

Provides information in plain-text format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

More Information and Examples

Concept of LastErrorText LastErrorText Standard Information

LastErrorXml

public string LastErrorXml {get; }

Provides information in XML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

LastInputAsHex

public string LastInputAsHex {get; }

If SaveLast is set to true, then the input and output of a conversion is saved to allow the exact bytes that are sent to the converter to be seen (for debugging purposes). This property shows the last input data in a hexidecimalized string.

LastInputAsQP

public string LastInputAsQP {get; }

If SaveLast is set to true, then the input and output of a conversion is saved to allow the exact bytes that are sent to the converter to be seen (for debugging purposes). This property shows the last input data in a quoted-printable string.

LastMethodSuccess

public bool LastMethodSuccess {get; set; }

Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of true indicates success, a value of false indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:

Any method that returns a string.
Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = true and failure = false.
Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.

Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to true. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.

LastOutputAsHex

public string LastOutputAsHex {get; }

If SaveLast is set to true, then the input and output of a conversion is saved to allow the exact bytes that are sent to the converter to be seen (for debugging purposes). This property shows the last output data in a hexidecimalized string.

LastOutputAsQP

public string LastOutputAsQP {get; }

If SaveLast is set to true, then the input and output of a conversion is saved to allow the exact bytes that are sent to the converter to be seen (for debugging purposes). This property shows the last output data in a quoted-printable string.

SaveLast

public bool SaveLast {get; set; }

Tells the component to keep the input/output byte data in memory after a conversion is complete so the data can be examined via the LastInputAsHex/QP and LastOutputAsHex/QP properties. (for debugging purposes)

ToCharset

public string ToCharset {get; set; }

Tells the charset converter the target charset for a conversion. Possible values are:

<font size="2" face="MS Sans Serif">
us-ascii
unicode  (also known as UTF16LE or simply UTF16)
unicodefffe  (also known as UTF16BE)
ebcdic
iso-8859-1
iso-8859-2
iso-8859-3
iso-8859-4
iso-8859-5
iso-8859-6
iso-8859-7
iso-8859-8
iso-8859-9
iso-8859-13
iso-8859-15
windows-874
windows-1250
windows-1251
windows-1252
windows-1253
windows-1254
windows-1255
windows-1256
windows-1257
windows-1258
utf-7
utf-8
utf-32
utf-32be
shift_jis
gb2312
ks_c_5601-1987
big5
iso-2022-jp
iso-2022-kr
euc-jp
euc-kr
macintosh
x-mac-japanese
x-mac-chinesetrad
x-mac-korean
x-mac-arabic
x-mac-hebrew
x-mac-greek
x-mac-cyrillic
x-mac-chinesesimp
x-mac-romanian
x-mac-ukrainian
x-mac-thai
x-mac-ce
x-mac-icelandic
x-mac-turkish
x-mac-croatian
asmo-708
dos-720
dos-862
ibm01140
ibm01141
ibm01142
ibm01143
ibm01144
ibm01145
ibm01146
ibm01147
ibm01148
ibm01149
ibm037
ibm437
ibm500
ibm737
ibm775
ibm850
ibm852
ibm855
ibm857
ibm00858
ibm860
ibm861
ibm863
ibm864
ibm865
cp866
ibm869
ibm870
cp875
koi8-r
koi8-u
</font>

VerboseLogging

public bool VerboseLogging {get; set; }

If set to true, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is false. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

Version

public string Version {get; }

Version of the component/library, such as "9.5.0.94"

More Information and Examples

(.NET Core C#) How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.(C#) How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.(Mono C#) How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.(PowerShell) How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.

Methods

CharsetToCodePage

public int CharsetToCodePage(string charsetName);

Converts a charset name to a code page number. For example, "iso-8859-1" converts to code page 28591.

CodePageToCharset

public string CodePageToCharset(int codePage);

Converts a code page number to a charset name. For example, 65001 converts to "utf-8".

Returns null on failure

ConvertData

public byte[] ConvertData(byte[] inData);

Converts character data from one charset to another. Before calling ConvertData, the FromCharset and ToCharset properties must be set to the source and destination charset names, such as "iso-8859-1" or "Shift_JIS".

Returns an empty byte array on failure

ConvertFile

public bool ConvertFile(string inPath, string destPath);

Converts a file from one character encoding to another. The FromCharset and ToCharset properties specify the source and destination character encodings. If the ToCharset is utf-16 or utf-8, then the preamble (also known as BOM) is included in the output. (Call ConvertFileNoPreamble to suppress the output of the BOM.)

Returns true for success, false for failure.

More Information and Examples

(.NET Core C#) Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM (C#) Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM (Mono C#) Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM (PowerShell) Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM

ConvertFileNoPreamble

public bool ConvertFileNoPreamble(string inPath, string destPath);

Converts a file from one character encoding to another. The FromCharset and ToCharset properties specify the source and destination character encodings. No preamble (also known as BOM) is included in the output.

ConvertFromUnicode

public byte[] ConvertFromUnicode(string inData);

Converts Unicode (utf-16) text to the charset specified by the ToCharset property.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

ConvertFromUtf16

public byte[] ConvertFromUtf16(byte[] uniData);

Converts utf-16 text to the charset specified by the ToCharset property.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

ConvertHtml

public byte[] ConvertHtml(byte[] inData);

Converts HTML text from one character encoding to another. The FromCharset and ToCharset properties must be set prior to calling this method. This method automatically edits the META tag within the HTML that indicates the charset.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

ConvertHtmlFile

public bool ConvertHtmlFile(string inPath, string destPath);

Converts an HTML file from one character encoding to another. The ToCharset properties must be set prior to calling this method. If the FromCharset is not set, it is obtained from the HTML META tag that indicates the charset. This method automatically edits the META tag within the HTML that indicates the charset.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

ConvertToUnicode

public string ConvertToUnicode(byte[] inData);

Converts multibyte character data to a Unicode string. The FromCharset property should be set before calling this method.

Returns null on failure

ConvertToUtf16

public byte[] ConvertToUtf16(byte[] mbData);

Converts the mbData to utf-16 bytes.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

EntityEncodeDec

public string EntityEncodeDec(string str);

Converts non-US-ASCII characters to Unicode decimal entities (&#xxxxx;)

Returns null on failure

EntityEncodeHex

public string EntityEncodeHex(string str);

Converts non-US-ASCII characters to Unicode hex entities (&#xXXXX;)

Returns null on failure

GetHtmlCharset

public string GetHtmlCharset(byte[] inData);

Examines HTML text and extracts the charset name specified by the META tag, if present.

Returns null on failure

GetHtmlFileCharset

public string GetHtmlFileCharset(string htmlFilePath);

Examines an HTML file and extracts the charset name specified by the META tag, if present.

Returns null on failure

HtmlDecodeToStr

public string HtmlDecodeToStr(string inStr);

Converts HTML entities to Unicode characters.

Returns null on failure

HtmlEntityDecode

public byte[] HtmlEntityDecode(byte[] inHtml);

Decodes HTML entities. See http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/sgml/entities.html for information on HTML entities. Examples of HTML entities are < , å , å , 水 , Í , etc.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

HtmlEntityDecodeFile

public bool HtmlEntityDecodeFile(string inPath, string destPath);

Decodes HTML entities in a file and creates a new HTML file with the entities decoded. See http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/sgml/entities.html for information on HTML entities. Examples of HTML entities are < , å , å , 水 , Í , etc.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

LowerCase

public string LowerCase(string inStr);

Converts a string to lowercase.

Returns null on failure

ReadFile

public byte[] ReadFile(string path);

Convenience method for reading the entire contents of a file into a byte array.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

ReadFileToString

public string ReadFileToString(string path, string charset);

Reads a text file and returns the text converted to a Unicode string. The filename is specified by the first method argument, and the charset of the text data is specified by the 2nd method argument.

Returns null on failure

SetErrorBytes

public void SetErrorBytes(byte[] data);

If the ErrorAction property is set to 1, the bytes passed to this method are used as the result for any characters that cannot be converted during a conversion.

SetErrorString

public void SetErrorString(string str, string charset);

If the ErrorAction property is set to 1, the string passed to this method is used as the result for any characters that cannot be converted during a conversion.

UpperCase

public string UpperCase(string inStr);

Converts a string to uppercase.

Returns null on failure

UrlDecodeStr

public string UrlDecodeStr(string inStr);

URL decodes a string.

This method assumes the ANSI byte representation was used for encoding. For example, the letter É, where the ANSI charset is Latin-1, would appear as "%C9" when URL encoded. (As opposed to the utf-8 encoding where É is represented by 2 bytes 0xC3, 0x89 and would appear as "%C3%89" when URl encoded. This method assumes ANSI encoding.

You can use encoding/decoding methods in Chilkat's StringBuilder class to specify the charset from which to decode or encode.

Returns null on failure

VerifyData

public bool VerifyData(string charset, byte[] inData);

Returns true if the byte data conforms to the charset passed in the first argument.

VerifyFile

public bool VerifyFile(string charset, string path);

Returns true if the file contains character data that conforms to the charset passed in the 1st argument.

WriteFile

public bool WriteFile(string path, byte[] byteData);

Convenience method for saving an entire byte array to a file.

WriteStringToFile

public bool WriteStringToFile(string textData, string path, string charset);

Converts a Unicode string to a multibyte charset and writes the multibyte text data to a file. The destination charset is specified in the 2nd method argument.

Returns true for success, false for failure.