Charset Chilkat2 PHP Reference Documentation

Charset

Current Version: 11.7.0

Markdown version of this page for AI tools (v 11.7.0) · all AI docs

Requires Chilkat Bundle License

Deprecated — scheduled for removal

Legacy character-set conversion utilities. Migrate before Chilkat v12.0.0.

Do not use Chilkat.Charset in new development. The entire class is deprecated and is scheduled to be removed in Chilkat v12.0.0. Existing applications should migrate now. Equivalent functionality is available in the free Chilkat.BinData and Chilkat.StringBuilder classes.

Chilkat.Charset is a legacy class for converting text between character encodings, reading and writing encoded text files, inspecting or rewriting HTML charset declarations, encoding and decoding HTML entities, validating byte sequences, and performing several older text utilities. It remains documented only to support maintenance and migration of existing applications.

Use BinData for bytes

Store raw bytes, load and save files, append byte-order marks, and move encoded data between files, memory, and other Chilkat objects.

Use StringBuilder for text

Hold Unicode text and perform charset encoding or decoding, URL processing, HTML entity conversion, case conversion, and related text operations.

Prefer UTF-8

For new text formats and interchange, use UTF-8 unless a protocol or legacy system explicitly requires another encoding.

Keep bytes and characters distinct

A charset defines how text characters map to bytes. Binary encodings such as Base64 or hexadecimal solve a different problem and are not character sets.

Legacy HTML helpers

The class can inspect and rewrite HTML charset metadata, but these helpers do not validate that declared metadata matches the actual bytes.

Maintenance only

Continue using this class only while maintaining older code, and plan a tested migration before adopting Chilkat v12.

Migration pattern: load encoded bytes into BinData, decode them into a StringBuilder using the known source charset, work with Unicode text, then encode back into BinData using the required destination charset. This makes the boundary between bytes and text explicit and replaces the stateful FromCharset/ToCharset workflow.

Object Creation

use Chilkat2\Charset;

try {
    $charset = new Charset();
    // ... use $charset ...
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getClass(), '::', $e->getMethod(), " failed\n";
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";              // the LastErrorText of the failed call
}
public function __construct(array $properties = [])

Creates the object. The optional array sets properties in order, as if assigned one by one (new Charset(['VerboseLogging' => true, 'RaiseError' => false])); an unknown or read-only name throws Error. The class is defined by the chilkat2 extension (extension=chilkat2 in php.ini): there is no PHP file to include.

There is no close(): PHP frees the object when its last reference goes (unset($charset), $charset = null, or the end of the function or request). Objects returned by methods are independent and freed the same way. The class may be extended (class MyCharset extends \Chilkat2\Charset); objects cannot be cloned or serialized.

public bool $RaiseError;

When true (the default), a method that fails throws Chilkat2\Exception. When false, it returns false (or null) instead, and the reason is in LastErrorText. Objects returned by a method inherit the value of the object that returned them.

Errors

Chilkat2\Exception extends RuntimeException: getMessage() is the failed call's full LastErrorText, getClass() its class ('Chilkat2\Charset') and getMethod() the method name. The object remains usable. Methods that look something up and find nothing return null without throwing (each such method says so), methods that answer a question (HasMember, IsUnlocked, ...) return a plain bool, and property reads and writes do not throw for Chilkat reasons.

Misuse always throws, whatever RaiseError is: a wrong argument type is a TypeError (exact types under declare(strict_types=1)), a missing or extra argument an ArgumentCountError, a string containing a NUL byte or an out-of-range integer a ValueError, and an unknown property (properties are case-sensitive) or a write to a read-only one an Error. Named arguments work with the parameter names shown.

Strings are passed and returned as UTF-8; binary data is a PHP string of bytes. Unlocking: call (new \Chilkat2\GlobalSettings())->UnlockBundle('...') once at startup.

Properties

AltToCharset
public string $AltToCharset;

Specifies the alternate destination character encoding used only when ErrorAction is 6.

If a decoded input character cannot be represented in ToCharset, Chilkat attempts to encode that character using this alternate charset. If the alternate conversion also fails, the character is omitted from the output.

Mixed-encoding output: The result can contain a mixture of byte encodings. Such output is usually unsuitable for interchange unless the receiving format explicitly supports this behavior.

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DebugLogFilePath
public string $DebugLogFilePath;

If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.

Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.

Possible causes of hangs include:

  • A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
  • A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
  • An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.

More Information and Examples
Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.
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ErrorAction
public int $ErrorAction;

Controls what happens when an input character has been decoded successfully but cannot be represented in the destination charset.

ValueAction
0Drop the unrepresentable character.
1Insert the replacement configured by SetErrorString.
2Emit a hexadecimal numeric character reference such as €.
3–5Reserved. Do not use.
6Encode the character using AltToCharset; drop it if that also fails.
7Pass the nonconvertible data through unchanged.
Data-integrity warning: Values 0, 6, and 7 can silently lose data or produce output that is not valid in the declared destination charset. For new code, prefer an explicit failure or replacement policy in the replacement API.

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FromCharset
public string $FromCharset;

Specifies the character encoding of the input bytes for conversion operations. Chilkat decodes the source bytes using this charset before encoding the resulting Unicode text using ToCharset.

FamilyRecognized names
Unicode and ASCIIus-ascii, utf-7, utf-8, unicode / utf-16 / utf-16le, unicodefffe / utf-16be, utf-32, utf-32be
ISO and Windowsiso-8859-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9, -13, -15; windows-874, windows-1250 through windows-1258
East Asianshift_jis, gb2312, ks_c_5601-1987, big5, iso-2022-jp, iso-2022-kr, euc-jp, euc-kr
Macintoshmacintosh, 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
DOS, IBM, and legacyebcdic, asmo-708, dos-720, dos-862, ibm01140 through ibm01149, ibm037, ibm437, ibm500, ibm737, ibm775, ibm850, ibm852, ibm855, ibm857, ibm00858, ibm860, ibm861, ibm863, ibm864, ibm865, cp866, ibm869, ibm870, cp875, koi8-r, koi8-u
Source encoding: unicode, utf-16, and utf-16le identify little-endian UTF-16. unicodefffe and utf-16be identify big-endian UTF-16. Except where a method explicitly documents HTML metadata detection, set the source charset explicitly rather than assuming automatic detection.

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LastErrorHtml
public readonly string $LastErrorHtml;

Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorText
public readonly string $LastErrorText;

Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

More Information and Examples
Concept of LastErrorTextLastErrorText Standard Information
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LastErrorXml
public readonly string $LastErrorXml;

Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastInputAsHex
public readonly string $LastInputAsHex;

Returns the input bytes captured for the most recent conversion performed while SaveLast was enabled, represented as hexadecimal text.

Diagnostic snapshot: This is a diagnostic representation of the raw bytes. It does not perform another charset conversion, and the quoted-printable form is intended to make otherwise nonprintable bytes easier to inspect.

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LastInputAsQP
public readonly string $LastInputAsQP;

Returns the input bytes captured for the most recent conversion performed while SaveLast was enabled, represented as quoted-printable text.

Diagnostic snapshot: This is a diagnostic representation of the raw bytes. It does not perform another charset conversion, and the quoted-printable form is intended to make otherwise nonprintable bytes easier to inspect.

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LastMethodSuccess
public bool $LastMethodSuccess;

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: true means success, false means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages. Note: This property does not apply to methods that return integer values or to boolean-returning methods where the boolean does not indicate success or failure.

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LastOutputAsHex
public readonly string $LastOutputAsHex;

Returns the output bytes captured for the most recent conversion performed while SaveLast was enabled, represented as hexadecimal text.

Diagnostic snapshot: This is a diagnostic representation of the raw bytes. It does not perform another charset conversion, and the quoted-printable form is intended to make otherwise nonprintable bytes easier to inspect.

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LastOutputAsQP
public readonly string $LastOutputAsQP;

Returns the output bytes captured for the most recent conversion performed while SaveLast was enabled, represented as quoted-printable text.

Diagnostic snapshot: This is a diagnostic representation of the raw bytes. It does not perform another charset conversion, and the quoted-printable form is intended to make otherwise nonprintable bytes easier to inspect.

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SaveLast
public bool $SaveLast;

When true, retains the input and output byte sequences from each conversion so they can be inspected through LastInputAsHex, LastInputAsQP, LastOutputAsHex, and LastOutputAsQP.

Debugging only: Enable this only while troubleshooting. Retaining both sides of a large conversion increases memory use and may keep sensitive plaintext in memory longer than necessary.

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ToCharset
public string $ToCharset;

Specifies the destination character encoding for conversion operations. After decoding the source bytes using FromCharset, Chilkat encodes the resulting Unicode text in this charset.

FamilyRecognized names
Unicode and ASCIIus-ascii, utf-7, utf-8, unicode / utf-16 / utf-16le, unicodefffe / utf-16be, utf-32, utf-32be
ISO and Windowsiso-8859-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9, -13, -15; windows-874, windows-1250 through windows-1258
East Asianshift_jis, gb2312, ks_c_5601-1987, big5, iso-2022-jp, iso-2022-kr, euc-jp, euc-kr
Macintoshmacintosh, 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
DOS, IBM, and legacyebcdic, asmo-708, dos-720, dos-862, ibm01140 through ibm01149, ibm037, ibm437, ibm500, ibm737, ibm775, ibm850, ibm852, ibm855, ibm857, ibm00858, ibm860, ibm861, ibm863, ibm864, ibm865, cp866, ibm869, ibm870, cp875, koi8-r, koi8-u
Choosing an output encoding: For new text interchange, utf-8 is normally the preferred destination. Legacy single-byte encodings cannot represent every Unicode character; ErrorAction controls how such conversion failures are handled.

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VerboseLogging
public bool $VerboseLogging;

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.

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Version
public readonly string $Version;

Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"

More Information and Examples
How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.
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Methods

CharsetToCodePage
public function CharsetToCodePage(string $charsetName): int

Returns the numeric Windows code-page identifier corresponding to $charsetName. For example, iso-8859-1 maps to 28591, and utf-8 maps to 65001.

Code pages: A code page number is a legacy Windows identifier for a character encoding. Internet protocols and modern APIs normally use charset names such as utf-8 rather than numeric code pages.
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CodePageToCharset
public function CodePageToCharset(int $codePage): ?string

Returns the charset name corresponding to the numeric code-page identifier in $codePage. For example, 65001 maps to utf-8. The operation fails when the code page is not recognized.

Name normalization: Different aliases can identify the same encoding. The returned value is Chilkat’s canonical name for the recognized code page, not necessarily the alias originally used by another application.

On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns null). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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ConvertFile
public function ConvertFile(string $inPath, string $destPath): bool

Reads the file at $inPath, converts its text from FromCharset to ToCharset, and writes the converted bytes to the file at $destPath.

When the destination charset is utf-8 or utf-16, this method writes the corresponding byte-order mark (BOM) at the beginning of the output. Use ConvertFileNoPreamble when the output must not contain a BOM.

BOM behavior: A BOM is a leading byte sequence that can identify a Unicode encoding or byte order. UTF-8 does not require a BOM, and many modern formats prefer UTF-8 without one.

Returns true on success. On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns false). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

More Information and Examples
Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM
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ConvertFileNoPreamble
public function ConvertFileNoPreamble(string $inPath, string $destPath): bool

Reads the file at $inPath, converts its text from FromCharset to ToCharset, and writes the converted bytes to $destPath without adding a byte-order mark or other encoding preamble.

UTF-8 output: This is generally the appropriate choice for UTF-8 files unless the consuming system specifically requires a UTF-8 BOM.

Returns true on success. On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns false). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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ConvertHtmlFile
public function ConvertHtmlFile(string $inPath, string $destPath): bool

Converts the HTML file at $inPath to ToCharset and writes the result to $destPath. Chilkat also updates the HTML <meta> charset declaration to identify the destination encoding.

If FromCharset is empty, Chilkat attempts to obtain the source charset from an HTML <meta> declaration. Otherwise, the explicitly configured source charset is used.

Detection limitation: A declared charset is metadata, not proof of the file’s actual encoding. Incorrect or missing declarations can cause decoding errors; use an explicit source charset when it is known.

Returns true on success. On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns false). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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EntityEncodeDec
public function EntityEncodeDec(string $str): ?string

Returns $str with each non-US-ASCII character replaced by a decimal HTML/XML numeric character reference. For example, é becomes &#233;.

Entity encoding: Numeric character references describe Unicode characters; they are not a character-set conversion and do not make arbitrary binary data safe for HTML.

On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns null). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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EntityEncodeHex
public function EntityEncodeHex(string $str): ?string

Returns $str with each non-US-ASCII character replaced by a hexadecimal HTML/XML numeric character reference. For example, é becomes &#xE9;.

Entity encoding: Decimal and hexadecimal numeric references represent the same Unicode character; only the textual notation differs.

On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns null). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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GetHtmlFileCharset
public function GetHtmlFileCharset(string $htmlFilePath): ?string

Examines the HTML file at $htmlFilePath and returns the charset name declared by an HTML <meta> element, when present.

Metadata only: The method reads document metadata only. A missing, stale, or incorrect declaration does not reveal the file’s true encoding.

On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns null). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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HtmlDecodeToStr
public function HtmlDecodeToStr(string $inStr): ?string

Decodes HTML named entities and numeric character references in $inStr and returns the resulting Unicode string. Examples include &lt;, &amp;, &#233;, and &#xE9;.

Security context: Entity decoding is a text transformation, not HTML parsing or sanitization. Decoding untrusted text can reintroduce markup-significant characters such as <, >, and &.

On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns null). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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HtmlEntityDecodeFile
public function HtmlEntityDecodeFile(string $inPath, string $destPath): bool

Reads the file at $inPath, decodes HTML named entities and numeric character references, and writes the transformed content to $destPath.

Content transformation: The output may contain literal markup-significant characters that were previously escaped. This operation does not parse, validate, or sanitize HTML.

Returns true on success. On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns false). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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LowerCase
public function LowerCase(string $inStr): ?string

Returns the lowercase form of $inStr using Chilkat’s Unicode case conversion.

Unicode casing: Case conversion can change string length and is not the same operation as locale-aware collation or case-insensitive comparison.

On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns null). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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ReadFileToString
public function ReadFileToString(string $path, string $charset): ?string

Reads the text file at $path, decodes its bytes using the charset named by $charset, and returns the resulting Unicode string.

Charset must match the file: The caller must supply the actual source encoding. Choosing the wrong charset can produce replacement characters or silently incorrect text even when the file can be decoded.

On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns null). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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SetErrorString
public function SetErrorString(string $str, string $charset): void

Configures the replacement used when ErrorAction is 1. $str is the replacement text, and $charset identifies the charset used to encode that replacement into the conversion output.

Replacement behavior: Choose replacement text that is representable in the specified charset. A common replacement is ?, but explicit error handling is safer when data loss is unacceptable.
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UpperCase
public function UpperCase(string $inStr): ?string

Returns the uppercase form of $inStr using Chilkat’s Unicode case conversion.

Unicode casing: Case conversion can change string length and is not the same operation as locale-aware collation or case-insensitive comparison.

On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns null). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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UrlDecodeStr
public function UrlDecodeStr(string $inStr): ?string

Percent-decodes $inStr and interprets the resulting bytes using the platform’s legacy ANSI character encoding.

For example, in a Western Windows code page, %C9 may decode as É. UTF-8 input would encode the same character as %C3%89 and is therefore not handled correctly by this legacy assumption.

Legacy ANSI behavior: Do not use this method for modern URLs or form data unless the data is known to use the applicable ANSI code page. Use StringBuilder URL decoding with an explicit charset, normally utf-8.

On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns null). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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VerifyFile
public function VerifyFile(string $charset, string $path): bool

Returns true when the contents of the file at $path form a valid byte sequence for the charset named by $charset; otherwise returns false.

Validation limitation: A successful result means only that the bytes are structurally valid for that encoding. It does not identify the encoding or confirm that the decoded text is semantically correct.

Never throws: false is an answer, not a failure.

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WriteStringToFile
public function WriteStringToFile(string $textData, string $path, string $charset): bool

Encodes the Unicode text in $textData using the charset named by $charset and writes the resulting bytes to the file at $path.

Destination encoding: The charset argument is the third parameter. Select utf-8 for modern interchange unless a receiving system requires a specific legacy encoding.

Returns true on success. On failure it throws Chilkat2\Exception (or, with RaiseError set to false, returns false). $e->getMessage() (or the object's LastErrorText) explains why, and the object remains usable.

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