Charset ActiveX Reference Documentation

Charset

Current Version: 10.1.2

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

Note:
For versions of Chilkat < 10.0.0, use "Chilkat_9_5_0.Charset" instead of "Chilkat.Charset"
For a specific major version, use "Chilkat.Charset.<major_version>", such as "Chilkat.Charset.10" for Chilkat v10.*.*
See Chilkat ActiveX Object Creation

(ASP)
set obj = Server.CreateObject("Chilkat.Charset")

(AutoIt)
$obj = ObjCreate("Chilkat.Charset")

(Visual Basic 6.0)
Dim obj As New ChilkatCharset

(VBScript)
set obj = CreateObject("Chilkat.Charset")

(Delphi)
obj := TChilkatCharset.Create(Self);

(FoxPro)
loObject = CreateObject('Chilkat.Charset')

(PowerBuilder)
lole_object = create oleobject
li_rc = lole_object.ConnectToNewObject("Chilkat.Charset")

(SQL Server)
EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'Chilkat.Charset', @obj OUT

(Javascript)
var obj = new ActiveXObject("Chilkat.Charset");

Properties

AltToCharset

AltToCharset As String

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

DebugLogFilePath As String

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

(AutoIt) Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.(Classic ASP) Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.(PowerBuilder) Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.(SQL Server) Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.(VBScript) Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.(Visual Basic 6.0) Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.(Visual FoxPro) Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.

ErrorAction

ErrorAction As Long

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

FromCharset As String

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>

LastBinaryResult

LastBinaryResult As Variant (read-only)

This property is mainly used in SQL Server stored procedures to retrieve binary data from the last method call that returned binary data. It is only accessible if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to 1. This feature allows for the retrieval of large varbinary results in an SQL Server environment, which has restrictions on returning large data via method calls, though temp tables can handle binary properties.

LastErrorHtml

LastErrorHtml As String (read-only)

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.

LastErrorText

LastErrorText As String (read-only)

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 LastErrorText LastErrorText Standard Information

LastErrorXml

LastErrorXml As String (read-only)

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.

LastInputAsHex

LastInputAsHex As String (read-only)

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

LastInputAsQP As String (read-only)

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

LastMethodSuccess As Long

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: 1 means success, 0 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.

LastOutputAsHex

LastOutputAsHex As String (read-only)

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

LastOutputAsQP As String (read-only)

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.

LastStringResult

LastStringResult As String (read-only)

In SQL Server stored procedures, this property holds the string return value of the most recent method call that returns a string. It is accessible only when Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to TRUE. SQL Server has limitations on string lengths returned from methods and properties, but temp tables can be used to access large strings.

More Information and Examples

Long Strings Returned by ActiveX Methods in SQL Server

LastStringResultLen

LastStringResultLen As Long (read-only)

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

SaveLast

SaveLast As Long

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

ToCharset As String

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

VerboseLogging As Long

If set to 1, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is 0. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

Version

Version As String (read-only)

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

More Information and Examples

(AutoIt) How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.(Classic ASP) How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.(PowerBuilder) How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.(SQL Server) How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.(VBScript) How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.(Visual Basic 6.0) How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.(Visual FoxPro) How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.

Methods

CharsetToCodePage

CharsetToCodePage(charsetName As String) As Long

Converts a character set name, such as "iso-8859-1," to its corresponding code page number, like 28591.

CodePageToCharset

CodePageToCharset(ByVal codePage As Long) As String

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

Returns Nothing on failure

ConvertData

ConvertData(inData As Variant) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

ConvertFile

ConvertFile(inPath As String, destPath As String) As Long

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

(AutoIt) Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM (Classic ASP) Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM (PowerBuilder) Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM (SQL Server) Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM (VBScript) Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM (Visual Basic 6.0) Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM (Visual FoxPro) Convert a File's Character Encoding from UTF-8 to UFT-8-BOM

ConvertFileNoPreamble

ConvertFileNoPreamble(inPath As String, destPath As String) As Long

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

ConvertFromUnicode(inData As String) As Variant

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

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

ConvertFromUtf16

ConvertFromUtf16(uniData As Variant) As Variant

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

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

ConvertHtml

ConvertHtml(inData As Variant) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

ConvertHtmlFile

ConvertHtmlFile(inPath As String, destPath As String) As Long

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.

ConvertToUnicode

ConvertToUnicode(inData As Variant) As String

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

Returns Nothing on failure

ConvertToUtf16

ConvertToUtf16(mbData As Variant) As Variant

Converts the mbData to utf-16 bytes.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

EntityEncodeDec

EntityEncodeDec(str As String) As String

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

Returns Nothing on failure

EntityEncodeHex

EntityEncodeHex(str As String) As String

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

Returns Nothing on failure

GetHtmlCharset

GetHtmlCharset(inData As Variant) As String

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

Returns Nothing on failure

GetHtmlFileCharset

GetHtmlFileCharset(htmlFilePath As String) As String

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

Returns Nothing on failure

HtmlDecodeToStr

HtmlDecodeToStr(inStr As String) As String

Converts HTML entities to Unicode characters.

Returns Nothing on failure

HtmlEntityDecode

HtmlEntityDecode(inHtml As Variant) As Variant

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 a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

HtmlEntityDecodeFile

HtmlEntityDecodeFile(inPath As String, destPath As String) As Long

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.

LowerCase

LowerCase(inStr As String) As String

Converts a string to lowercase.

Returns Nothing on failure

ReadFile

ReadFile(path As String) As Variant

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

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.
An empty array will have a UBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.

ReadFileToString

ReadFileToString(path As String, charset As String) As String

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 Nothing on failure

SetErrorString

SetErrorString(str As String, charset As String)

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

UpperCase(inStr As String) As String

Converts a string to uppercase.

Returns Nothing on failure

UrlDecodeStr

UrlDecodeStr(inStr As String) As String

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 Nothing on failure

VerifyData

VerifyData(charset As String, inData As Variant) As Long

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

VerifyFile

VerifyFile(charset As String, path As String) As Long

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

WriteFile

WriteFile(path As String, byteData As Variant) As Long

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

WriteStringToFile

WriteStringToFile(textData As String, path As String, charset As String) As Long

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 1 for success, 0 for failure.