Related
Yes is a most frequent question, and this matter is vague for me and since I don't know much about it.
But i would like a very precise way to find a files Encoding.
So precise as Notepad++ is.
The StreamReader.CurrentEncoding property rarely returns the correct text file encoding for me. I've had greater success determining a file's endianness, by analyzing its byte order mark (BOM). If the file does not have a BOM, this cannot determine the file's encoding.
*UPDATED 4/08/2020 to include UTF-32LE detection and return correct encoding for UTF-32BE
/// <summary>
/// Determines a text file's encoding by analyzing its byte order mark (BOM).
/// Defaults to ASCII when detection of the text file's endianness fails.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="filename">The text file to analyze.</param>
/// <returns>The detected encoding.</returns>
public static Encoding GetEncoding(string filename)
{
// Read the BOM
var bom = new byte[4];
using (var file = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
file.Read(bom, 0, 4);
}
// Analyze the BOM
if (bom[0] == 0x2b && bom[1] == 0x2f && bom[2] == 0x76) return Encoding.UTF7;
if (bom[0] == 0xef && bom[1] == 0xbb && bom[2] == 0xbf) return Encoding.UTF8;
if (bom[0] == 0xff && bom[1] == 0xfe && bom[2] == 0 && bom[3] == 0) return Encoding.UTF32; //UTF-32LE
if (bom[0] == 0xff && bom[1] == 0xfe) return Encoding.Unicode; //UTF-16LE
if (bom[0] == 0xfe && bom[1] == 0xff) return Encoding.BigEndianUnicode; //UTF-16BE
if (bom[0] == 0 && bom[1] == 0 && bom[2] == 0xfe && bom[3] == 0xff) return new UTF32Encoding(true, true); //UTF-32BE
// We actually have no idea what the encoding is if we reach this point, so
// you may wish to return null instead of defaulting to ASCII
return Encoding.ASCII;
}
The following code works fine for me, using the StreamReader class:
using (var reader = new StreamReader(fileName, defaultEncodingIfNoBom, true))
{
reader.Peek(); // you need this!
var encoding = reader.CurrentEncoding;
}
The trick is to use the Peek call, otherwise, .NET has not done anything (and it hasn't read the preamble, the BOM). Of course, if you use any other ReadXXX call before checking the encoding, it works too.
If the file has no BOM, then the defaultEncodingIfNoBom encoding will be used. There is also a StreamReader constructor overload without this argument (in this case, the encoding will by default be set to UTF8 before any read), but I recommend to define what you consider the default encoding in your context.
I have tested this successfully with files with BOM for UTF8, UTF16/Unicode (LE & BE) and UTF32 (LE & BE). It does not work for UTF7.
Providing the implementation details for the steps proposed by #CodesInChaos:
1) Check if there is a Byte Order Mark
2) Check if the file is valid UTF8
3) Use the local "ANSI" codepage (ANSI as Microsoft defines it)
Step 2 works because most non ASCII sequences in codepages other that UTF8 are not valid UTF8. https://stackoverflow.com/a/4522251/867248 explains the tactic in more details.
using System; using System.IO; using System.Text;
// Using encoding from BOM or UTF8 if no BOM found,
// check if the file is valid, by reading all lines
// If decoding fails, use the local "ANSI" codepage
public string DetectFileEncoding(Stream fileStream)
{
var Utf8EncodingVerifier = Encoding.GetEncoding("utf-8", new EncoderExceptionFallback(), new DecoderExceptionFallback());
using (var reader = new StreamReader(fileStream, Utf8EncodingVerifier,
detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks: true, leaveOpen: true, bufferSize: 1024))
{
string detectedEncoding;
try
{
while (!reader.EndOfStream)
{
var line = reader.ReadLine();
}
detectedEncoding = reader.CurrentEncoding.BodyName;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// Failed to decode the file using the BOM/UT8.
// Assume it's local ANSI
detectedEncoding = "ISO-8859-1";
}
// Rewind the stream
fileStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
return detectedEncoding;
}
}
[Test]
public void Test1()
{
Stream fs = File.OpenRead(#".\TestData\TextFile_ansi.csv");
var detectedEncoding = DetectFileEncoding(fs);
using (var reader = new StreamReader(fs, Encoding.GetEncoding(detectedEncoding)))
{
// Consume your file
var line = reader.ReadLine();
...
Check this.
UDE
This is a port of Mozilla Universal Charset Detector and you can use it like this...
public static void Main(String[] args)
{
string filename = args[0];
using (FileStream fs = File.OpenRead(filename)) {
Ude.CharsetDetector cdet = new Ude.CharsetDetector();
cdet.Feed(fs);
cdet.DataEnd();
if (cdet.Charset != null) {
Console.WriteLine("Charset: {0}, confidence: {1}",
cdet.Charset, cdet.Confidence);
} else {
Console.WriteLine("Detection failed.");
}
}
}
I'd try the following steps:
1) Check if there is a Byte Order Mark
2) Check if the file is valid UTF8
3) Use the local "ANSI" codepage (ANSI as Microsoft defines it)
Step 2 works because most non ASCII sequences in codepages other that UTF8 are not valid UTF8.
.NET is not very helpful, but you can try the following algorithm:
try to find the encoding by BOM(byte order mark) ... very likely not to be found
try parsing into different encodings
Here is the call:
var encoding = FileHelper.GetEncoding(filePath);
if (encoding == null)
throw new Exception("The file encoding is not supported. Please choose one of the following encodings: UTF8/UTF7/iso-8859-1");
Here is the code:
public class FileHelper
{
/// <summary>
/// Determines a text file's encoding by analyzing its byte order mark (BOM) and if not found try parsing into diferent encodings
/// Defaults to UTF8 when detection of the text file's endianness fails.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="filename">The text file to analyze.</param>
/// <returns>The detected encoding or null.</returns>
public static Encoding GetEncoding(string filename)
{
var encodingByBOM = GetEncodingByBOM(filename);
if (encodingByBOM != null)
return encodingByBOM;
// BOM not found :(, so try to parse characters into several encodings
var encodingByParsingUTF8 = GetEncodingByParsing(filename, Encoding.UTF8);
if (encodingByParsingUTF8 != null)
return encodingByParsingUTF8;
var encodingByParsingLatin1 = GetEncodingByParsing(filename, Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1"));
if (encodingByParsingLatin1 != null)
return encodingByParsingLatin1;
var encodingByParsingUTF7 = GetEncodingByParsing(filename, Encoding.UTF7);
if (encodingByParsingUTF7 != null)
return encodingByParsingUTF7;
return null; // no encoding found
}
/// <summary>
/// Determines a text file's encoding by analyzing its byte order mark (BOM)
/// </summary>
/// <param name="filename">The text file to analyze.</param>
/// <returns>The detected encoding.</returns>
private static Encoding GetEncodingByBOM(string filename)
{
// Read the BOM
var byteOrderMark = new byte[4];
using (var file = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
file.Read(byteOrderMark, 0, 4);
}
// Analyze the BOM
if (byteOrderMark[0] == 0x2b && byteOrderMark[1] == 0x2f && byteOrderMark[2] == 0x76) return Encoding.UTF7;
if (byteOrderMark[0] == 0xef && byteOrderMark[1] == 0xbb && byteOrderMark[2] == 0xbf) return Encoding.UTF8;
if (byteOrderMark[0] == 0xff && byteOrderMark[1] == 0xfe) return Encoding.Unicode; //UTF-16LE
if (byteOrderMark[0] == 0xfe && byteOrderMark[1] == 0xff) return Encoding.BigEndianUnicode; //UTF-16BE
if (byteOrderMark[0] == 0 && byteOrderMark[1] == 0 && byteOrderMark[2] == 0xfe && byteOrderMark[3] == 0xff) return Encoding.UTF32;
return null; // no BOM found
}
private static Encoding GetEncodingByParsing(string filename, Encoding encoding)
{
var encodingVerifier = Encoding.GetEncoding(encoding.BodyName, new EncoderExceptionFallback(), new DecoderExceptionFallback());
try
{
using (var textReader = new StreamReader(filename, encodingVerifier, detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks: true))
{
while (!textReader.EndOfStream)
{
textReader.ReadLine(); // in order to increment the stream position
}
// all text parsed ok
return textReader.CurrentEncoding;
}
}
catch (Exception ex) { }
return null; //
}
}
Look here for c#
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.streamreader.currentencoding%28v=vs.110%29.aspx
string path = #"path\to\your\file.ext";
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(path, true))
{
while (sr.Peek() >= 0)
{
Console.Write((char)sr.Read());
}
//Test for the encoding after reading, or at least
//after the first read.
Console.WriteLine("The encoding used was {0}.", sr.CurrentEncoding);
Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine();
}
This seems to work well.
First create a helper method:
private static Encoding TestCodePage(Encoding testCode, byte[] byteArray)
{
try
{
var encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding(testCode.CodePage, EncoderFallback.ExceptionFallback, DecoderFallback.ExceptionFallback);
var a = encoding.GetCharCount(byteArray);
return testCode;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
return null;
}
}
Then create code to test the source. In this case, I've got a byte array I need to get the encoding of:
public static Encoding DetectCodePage(byte[] contents)
{
if (contents == null || contents.Length == 0)
{
return Encoding.Default;
}
return TestCodePage(Encoding.UTF8, contents)
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.Unicode, contents)
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.BigEndianUnicode, contents)
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.GetEncoding(1252), contents) // Western European
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.GetEncoding(28591), contents) // ISO Western European
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.ASCII, contents)
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.Default, contents); // likely Unicode
}
The following codes are my Powershell codes to determinate if some cpp or h or ml files are encodeding with ISO-8859-1(Latin-1) or UTF-8 without BOM, if neither then suppose it to be GB18030. I am a Chinese working in France and MSVC saves as Latin-1 on french computer and saves as GB on Chinese computer so this helps me avoid encoding problem when do source file exchanges between my system and my colleagues.
The way is simple, if all characters are between x00-x7E, ASCII, UTF-8 and Latin-1 are all the same, but if I read a non ASCII file by UTF-8, we will find the special character � show up, so try to read with Latin-1. In Latin-1, between \x7F and \xAF is empty, while GB uses full between x00-xFF so if I got any between the two, it's not Latin-1
The code is written in PowerShell, but uses .net so it's easy to be translated into C# or F#
$Utf8NoBomEncoding = New-Object System.Text.UTF8Encoding($False)
foreach($i in Get-ChildItem .\ -Recurse -include *.cpp,*.h, *.ml) {
$openUTF = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader -ArgumentList ($i, [Text.Encoding]::UTF8)
$contentUTF = $openUTF.ReadToEnd()
[regex]$regex = '�'
$c=$regex.Matches($contentUTF).count
$openUTF.Close()
if ($c -ne 0) {
$openLatin1 = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader -ArgumentList ($i, [Text.Encoding]::GetEncoding('ISO-8859-1'))
$contentLatin1 = $openLatin1.ReadToEnd()
$openLatin1.Close()
[regex]$regex = '[\x7F-\xAF]'
$c=$regex.Matches($contentLatin1).count
if ($c -eq 0) {
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllLines($i, $contentLatin1, $Utf8NoBomEncoding)
$i.FullName
}
else {
$openGB = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader -ArgumentList ($i, [Text.Encoding]::GetEncoding('GB18030'))
$contentGB = $openGB.ReadToEnd()
$openGB.Close()
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllLines($i, $contentGB, $Utf8NoBomEncoding)
$i.FullName
}
}
}
Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Press any key to continue...';
$null = $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey('NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown');
The solution proposed by #nonoandy is really interesting, I have succesfully tested it and seems to be working perfectly.
The nuget package needed is Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection (version 8.17.0 at the moment)
I suggest to use the EncodingTypeUtils.GetDotNetName instead of using a switch for getting the Encoding instance:
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding;
...
public Encoding? DetectEncoding(Stream stream)
{
try
{
if (stream.CanSeek)
{
// Read from the beginning if possible
stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
}
// Detect encoding type (enum)
var encodingType = EncodingIdentifier.IdentifyEncoding(stream);
// Get the corresponding encoding name to be passed to System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding
var encodingDotNetName = EncodingTypeUtils.GetDotNetName(encodingType);
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(encodingDotNetName))
{
return Encoding.GetEncoding(encodingDotNetName);
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// Handle exception (log, throw, etc...)
}
// In case of error return null or a default value
return null;
}
I have tried a few different ways to detect encoding and hit issues with most of them.
I made the following leveraging a Microsoft Nuget Package and it seems to work for me so far but needs tested a lot more.
Most of my testing has been on UTF8, UTF8 with BOM and ASNI.
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var path = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() + "\\TextFile2.txt";
List<string> contents = File.ReadLines(path, GetEncoding(path)).Where(w => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(w)).ToList();
int i = 0;
foreach (var line in contents)
{
i++;
Console.WriteLine(line);
if (i > 100)
break;
}
}
public static Encoding GetEncoding(string filename)
{
using (var file = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
var detectedEncoding = Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingIdentifier.IdentifyEncoding(file);
switch (detectedEncoding)
{
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Utf8:
return Encoding.UTF8;
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Utf16Be:
return Encoding.BigEndianUnicode;
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Utf16Le:
return Encoding.Unicode;
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Utf32Le:
return Encoding.UTF32;
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Ascii:
return Encoding.ASCII;
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Iso88591:
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Unknown:
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Windows1252:
default:
return Encoding.Default;
}
}
}
It may be useful
string path = #"address/to/the/file.extension";
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(path))
{
Console.WriteLine(sr.CurrentEncoding);
}
I have requirement of writing to text file.
If the file size exceeds 700MB, create new file & write to it.
I am currently writing data with “|” delimited from database to file & after that check the file size & splitting into multiple files, but the file splits in middle of the line.
It should write till end of line or start that particular line in new file .
I need to write the column names in the first line in the newly splited file.
I am new to c#, could you please suggest me the solution with the sample code.
Please find below code to splitting the file
private static void ReadWriteToFile(string fileNames)
{
string sourceFileName = fileNames;
string destFileLocation = Path.GetDirectoryName(fileNames);
int index = 0;
long maxFileSize = 700 * 1024 * 1024;
byte[] buffer = new byte[65536];
using (Stream source = File.OpenRead(sourceFileName))
{
while (source.Position < source.Length)
{
index++;
string newFileName = Path.Combine(destFileLocation, Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(sourceFileName));
newFileName += index.ToString() + Path.GetExtension(sourceFileName);
using (Stream destination = File.OpenWrite(newFileName))
{
while (destination.Position < maxFileSize)
{
int bytes = source.Read(buffer, 0, (int)Math.Min(maxFileSize, buffer.Length));
destination.Write(buffer, 0, bytes);
if (bytes < Math.Min(maxFileSize, buffer.Length))
{
break;
}
}
}
}
}
}
Thanks in advance.
Could you please let me know if there is any alternative best way to do this
Try this, a rewrite of a line file splitter i wrote in my beginning c# times.
(You only have to add the column header as a string in the beginning of a new file.)
private static void SplitAfterMBytes(int splitAfterMBytes, string filename)
{
// Variable for max. file size.
var maxFileSize = splitAfterMBytes * 1048576;
int fileCount = 0;
long byteCount = 0;
StreamWriter writer = null;
try
{
var inputFile = new FileInfo(filename);
var index = filename.LastIndexOf('.');
//get only the name of the file.
var fileStart = filename.Substring(0, index);
// get the file extension
var fileExtension = inputFile.Extension;
// generate a new file name.
var outputFile = fileStart + '_' + fileCount++ + fileExtension;
// file format is like: QS_201101_321.txt.
writer = new StreamWriter(outputFile);
using (var reader = new StreamReader(filename))
{
for (string str; (str = reader.ReadLine()) != null;)
{
byteCount = byteCount + System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetByteCount(str);
if (byteCount >= maxFileSize)
{
// max number of bytes reached
// write into the old file, without Newline,
// so that no extra line is written.
writer.Write(str);
// 1. close the actual file.
writer.Close();
// 2. open a new file with number incresed by 1.
outputFile = fileStart + '_' + fileCount++ + fileExtension;
writer = new StreamWriter(outputFile);
byteCount = 0; //reset the counter.
}
else
{
// Write into the old file.
// Use a Linefeed, because Write works without LF.
// like Java ;)
writer.Write(str);
writer.Write(writer.NewLine);
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// do something useful, like: Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
finally
{
writer.Dispose();
}
}
I am trying to read a character (£) from a text file, using the following code.
public static List<string> ReadAllLines(string path, bool discardEmptyLines, bool doTrim)
{
var retVal = new List<string>();
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(path) || !File.Exists(path)) {
Comm.File.Log.LogError("ReadAllLines", string.Format("Could not load file: {0}", path));
return retVal;
}
//StreamReader sr = null;
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(path, Encoding.Default));
try {
sr = File.OpenText(path);
while (sr.Peek() >= 0) {
var line = sr.ReadLine();
if (discardEmptyLines && (line == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(line.Trim()))) {
continue;
}
if (line != null) {
retVal.Add(doTrim ? line.Trim() : line);
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex) {
Comm.File.Log.LogGeneralException("ReadAllLines", ex);
}
finally {
if (sr != null) {
sr.Close();
}
}
return retVal;
}
But my code is not correctly reading £, It is reading the character as � please guide me what needs to be done to read the special character.
Thanks in advance.
The file you are reading is not encoded the same as Encoding.Default. It is likely UTF-8. Try using UTF-8 for this particular file. For more generic usage, you should see Determining the Encoding of a text file.
Try to replace Encoding.Default with Encoding.GetEncoding(437)
Look like a encoding problem. Try creating your StreamReader with a UTF-8 (or Unicode) encoding instead of default.
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(path, Encoding.UTF8));
Encoding information can be provided to stream reader in 2 ways.
1)Save your file with save as option and select the appropriate encoding option from dropdown in windows.
see screenshot
2)If your files are dynamic in nature use Encoding.GetEncoding() with StreamReader
I am a bit new to files in C# and am having a problem. When reading from a file and copying to another, the last chunk of text is not being written. Below is my code:
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(8192);
string fileName = "C:...rest of path...inputFile.txt";
string outputFile = "C:...rest of path...outputFile.txt";
using (StreamReader reader = File.OpenText(fileName))
{
char[] buffer = new char[8192];
while ((reader.ReadBlock(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) != 0)
{
foreach (char c in buffer)
{
//do some function on char c...
sb.Append(c);
}
using (StreamWriter writer = File.CreateText(outputFile))
{
writer.Write(sb.ToString());
}
}
}
My aim was to read and write to a textfile in a buffered manner. Something that in Java I would achieve in the following manner:
public void encrypt(File inputFile, File outputFile) throws IOException
{
BufferedReader infromfile = null;
BufferedWriter outtofile = null;
try
{
String key = getKeyfromFile(keyFile);
if (key != null)
{
infromfile = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(inputFile));
outtofile = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(outputFile));
char[] buffer = new char[8192];
while ((infromfile.read(buffer, 0, buffer.length)) != -1)
{
String temptext = String.valueOf(buffer);
//some changes to temptext are done
outtofile.write(temptext);
}
}
}
catch (FileNotFoundException exc)
{
} // and all other possible exceptions
}
Could you help me identify the source of my problem?
If you think that there is possibly a better approach to achieve buffered i/o with text files, I would truly appreciate your suggestion.
There are a couple of "gotchas":
c can't be changed (it's the foreach iteration variable), you'll need to copy it in order to process before writing
you have to keep track of your buffer's size, ReadBlock fills it with characters which would make your output dirty
Changing your code like this looks like it works:
//extracted from your code
foreach (char c in buffer)
{
if (c == (char)0) break; //GOTCHA #2: maybe you don't want NULL (ascii 0) characters in your output
char d = c; //GOTCHA #1: you can't change 'c'
// d = SomeProcessingHere();
sb.Append(d);
}
Try this:
string fileName = #"";
string outputfile = #"";
StreamReader reader = File.OpenText(fileName);
string texto = reader.ReadToEnd();
StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(outputfile);
writer.Write(texto);
writer.Flush();
writer.Close();
Does this work for you?
using (StreamReader reader = File.OpenText(fileName))
{
char[] buffer = new char[8192];
bool eof = false;
while (!eof)
{
int numBytes = (reader.ReadBlock(buffer, 0, buffer.Length));
if (numBytes>0)
{
using (StreamWriter writer = File.CreateText(outputFile))
{
writer.Write(buffer, 0, numBytes);
}
} else {
eof = true;
}
}
}
You still have to take care of character encoding though!
If you dont care about carraign returns, you could use File.ReadAllText
This method opens a file, reads each line of the file, and then adds each line as an element of a string. It then closes the file. A line is defined as a sequence of characters followed by a carriage return ('\r'), a line feed ('\n'), or a carriage return immediately followed by a line feed. The resulting string does not contain the terminating carriage return and/or line feed.
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(8192);
string fileName = "C:...rest of path...inputFile.txt";
string outputFile = "C:...rest of path...outputFile.txt";
// Open the file to read from.
string readText = File.ReadAllText(fileName );
foreach (char c in readText)
{
// do something to c
sb.Append(new_c);
}
// This text is added only once to the file, overwrite it if it exists
File.WriteAllText(outputFile, sb.ToString());
Unless I'm missing something, it appears that your issue is that you're overwriting the existing contents of your output file on each blockread iteration.
You call:
using (StreamWriter writer = File.CreateText(outputFile))
{
writer.Write(sb.ToString());
}
for every ReadBlock iteration. The output of the file would only be the last chunk of data that was read.
From MSDN documentation on File.CreateText:
If the file specified by path does not exist, it is created. If the
file does exist, its contents are overwritten.
Yes is a most frequent question, and this matter is vague for me and since I don't know much about it.
But i would like a very precise way to find a files Encoding.
So precise as Notepad++ is.
The StreamReader.CurrentEncoding property rarely returns the correct text file encoding for me. I've had greater success determining a file's endianness, by analyzing its byte order mark (BOM). If the file does not have a BOM, this cannot determine the file's encoding.
*UPDATED 4/08/2020 to include UTF-32LE detection and return correct encoding for UTF-32BE
/// <summary>
/// Determines a text file's encoding by analyzing its byte order mark (BOM).
/// Defaults to ASCII when detection of the text file's endianness fails.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="filename">The text file to analyze.</param>
/// <returns>The detected encoding.</returns>
public static Encoding GetEncoding(string filename)
{
// Read the BOM
var bom = new byte[4];
using (var file = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
file.Read(bom, 0, 4);
}
// Analyze the BOM
if (bom[0] == 0x2b && bom[1] == 0x2f && bom[2] == 0x76) return Encoding.UTF7;
if (bom[0] == 0xef && bom[1] == 0xbb && bom[2] == 0xbf) return Encoding.UTF8;
if (bom[0] == 0xff && bom[1] == 0xfe && bom[2] == 0 && bom[3] == 0) return Encoding.UTF32; //UTF-32LE
if (bom[0] == 0xff && bom[1] == 0xfe) return Encoding.Unicode; //UTF-16LE
if (bom[0] == 0xfe && bom[1] == 0xff) return Encoding.BigEndianUnicode; //UTF-16BE
if (bom[0] == 0 && bom[1] == 0 && bom[2] == 0xfe && bom[3] == 0xff) return new UTF32Encoding(true, true); //UTF-32BE
// We actually have no idea what the encoding is if we reach this point, so
// you may wish to return null instead of defaulting to ASCII
return Encoding.ASCII;
}
The following code works fine for me, using the StreamReader class:
using (var reader = new StreamReader(fileName, defaultEncodingIfNoBom, true))
{
reader.Peek(); // you need this!
var encoding = reader.CurrentEncoding;
}
The trick is to use the Peek call, otherwise, .NET has not done anything (and it hasn't read the preamble, the BOM). Of course, if you use any other ReadXXX call before checking the encoding, it works too.
If the file has no BOM, then the defaultEncodingIfNoBom encoding will be used. There is also a StreamReader constructor overload without this argument (in this case, the encoding will by default be set to UTF8 before any read), but I recommend to define what you consider the default encoding in your context.
I have tested this successfully with files with BOM for UTF8, UTF16/Unicode (LE & BE) and UTF32 (LE & BE). It does not work for UTF7.
Providing the implementation details for the steps proposed by #CodesInChaos:
1) Check if there is a Byte Order Mark
2) Check if the file is valid UTF8
3) Use the local "ANSI" codepage (ANSI as Microsoft defines it)
Step 2 works because most non ASCII sequences in codepages other that UTF8 are not valid UTF8. https://stackoverflow.com/a/4522251/867248 explains the tactic in more details.
using System; using System.IO; using System.Text;
// Using encoding from BOM or UTF8 if no BOM found,
// check if the file is valid, by reading all lines
// If decoding fails, use the local "ANSI" codepage
public string DetectFileEncoding(Stream fileStream)
{
var Utf8EncodingVerifier = Encoding.GetEncoding("utf-8", new EncoderExceptionFallback(), new DecoderExceptionFallback());
using (var reader = new StreamReader(fileStream, Utf8EncodingVerifier,
detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks: true, leaveOpen: true, bufferSize: 1024))
{
string detectedEncoding;
try
{
while (!reader.EndOfStream)
{
var line = reader.ReadLine();
}
detectedEncoding = reader.CurrentEncoding.BodyName;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// Failed to decode the file using the BOM/UT8.
// Assume it's local ANSI
detectedEncoding = "ISO-8859-1";
}
// Rewind the stream
fileStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
return detectedEncoding;
}
}
[Test]
public void Test1()
{
Stream fs = File.OpenRead(#".\TestData\TextFile_ansi.csv");
var detectedEncoding = DetectFileEncoding(fs);
using (var reader = new StreamReader(fs, Encoding.GetEncoding(detectedEncoding)))
{
// Consume your file
var line = reader.ReadLine();
...
Check this.
UDE
This is a port of Mozilla Universal Charset Detector and you can use it like this...
public static void Main(String[] args)
{
string filename = args[0];
using (FileStream fs = File.OpenRead(filename)) {
Ude.CharsetDetector cdet = new Ude.CharsetDetector();
cdet.Feed(fs);
cdet.DataEnd();
if (cdet.Charset != null) {
Console.WriteLine("Charset: {0}, confidence: {1}",
cdet.Charset, cdet.Confidence);
} else {
Console.WriteLine("Detection failed.");
}
}
}
I'd try the following steps:
1) Check if there is a Byte Order Mark
2) Check if the file is valid UTF8
3) Use the local "ANSI" codepage (ANSI as Microsoft defines it)
Step 2 works because most non ASCII sequences in codepages other that UTF8 are not valid UTF8.
.NET is not very helpful, but you can try the following algorithm:
try to find the encoding by BOM(byte order mark) ... very likely not to be found
try parsing into different encodings
Here is the call:
var encoding = FileHelper.GetEncoding(filePath);
if (encoding == null)
throw new Exception("The file encoding is not supported. Please choose one of the following encodings: UTF8/UTF7/iso-8859-1");
Here is the code:
public class FileHelper
{
/// <summary>
/// Determines a text file's encoding by analyzing its byte order mark (BOM) and if not found try parsing into diferent encodings
/// Defaults to UTF8 when detection of the text file's endianness fails.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="filename">The text file to analyze.</param>
/// <returns>The detected encoding or null.</returns>
public static Encoding GetEncoding(string filename)
{
var encodingByBOM = GetEncodingByBOM(filename);
if (encodingByBOM != null)
return encodingByBOM;
// BOM not found :(, so try to parse characters into several encodings
var encodingByParsingUTF8 = GetEncodingByParsing(filename, Encoding.UTF8);
if (encodingByParsingUTF8 != null)
return encodingByParsingUTF8;
var encodingByParsingLatin1 = GetEncodingByParsing(filename, Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1"));
if (encodingByParsingLatin1 != null)
return encodingByParsingLatin1;
var encodingByParsingUTF7 = GetEncodingByParsing(filename, Encoding.UTF7);
if (encodingByParsingUTF7 != null)
return encodingByParsingUTF7;
return null; // no encoding found
}
/// <summary>
/// Determines a text file's encoding by analyzing its byte order mark (BOM)
/// </summary>
/// <param name="filename">The text file to analyze.</param>
/// <returns>The detected encoding.</returns>
private static Encoding GetEncodingByBOM(string filename)
{
// Read the BOM
var byteOrderMark = new byte[4];
using (var file = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
file.Read(byteOrderMark, 0, 4);
}
// Analyze the BOM
if (byteOrderMark[0] == 0x2b && byteOrderMark[1] == 0x2f && byteOrderMark[2] == 0x76) return Encoding.UTF7;
if (byteOrderMark[0] == 0xef && byteOrderMark[1] == 0xbb && byteOrderMark[2] == 0xbf) return Encoding.UTF8;
if (byteOrderMark[0] == 0xff && byteOrderMark[1] == 0xfe) return Encoding.Unicode; //UTF-16LE
if (byteOrderMark[0] == 0xfe && byteOrderMark[1] == 0xff) return Encoding.BigEndianUnicode; //UTF-16BE
if (byteOrderMark[0] == 0 && byteOrderMark[1] == 0 && byteOrderMark[2] == 0xfe && byteOrderMark[3] == 0xff) return Encoding.UTF32;
return null; // no BOM found
}
private static Encoding GetEncodingByParsing(string filename, Encoding encoding)
{
var encodingVerifier = Encoding.GetEncoding(encoding.BodyName, new EncoderExceptionFallback(), new DecoderExceptionFallback());
try
{
using (var textReader = new StreamReader(filename, encodingVerifier, detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks: true))
{
while (!textReader.EndOfStream)
{
textReader.ReadLine(); // in order to increment the stream position
}
// all text parsed ok
return textReader.CurrentEncoding;
}
}
catch (Exception ex) { }
return null; //
}
}
Look here for c#
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.streamreader.currentencoding%28v=vs.110%29.aspx
string path = #"path\to\your\file.ext";
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(path, true))
{
while (sr.Peek() >= 0)
{
Console.Write((char)sr.Read());
}
//Test for the encoding after reading, or at least
//after the first read.
Console.WriteLine("The encoding used was {0}.", sr.CurrentEncoding);
Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine();
}
This seems to work well.
First create a helper method:
private static Encoding TestCodePage(Encoding testCode, byte[] byteArray)
{
try
{
var encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding(testCode.CodePage, EncoderFallback.ExceptionFallback, DecoderFallback.ExceptionFallback);
var a = encoding.GetCharCount(byteArray);
return testCode;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
return null;
}
}
Then create code to test the source. In this case, I've got a byte array I need to get the encoding of:
public static Encoding DetectCodePage(byte[] contents)
{
if (contents == null || contents.Length == 0)
{
return Encoding.Default;
}
return TestCodePage(Encoding.UTF8, contents)
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.Unicode, contents)
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.BigEndianUnicode, contents)
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.GetEncoding(1252), contents) // Western European
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.GetEncoding(28591), contents) // ISO Western European
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.ASCII, contents)
?? TestCodePage(Encoding.Default, contents); // likely Unicode
}
The following codes are my Powershell codes to determinate if some cpp or h or ml files are encodeding with ISO-8859-1(Latin-1) or UTF-8 without BOM, if neither then suppose it to be GB18030. I am a Chinese working in France and MSVC saves as Latin-1 on french computer and saves as GB on Chinese computer so this helps me avoid encoding problem when do source file exchanges between my system and my colleagues.
The way is simple, if all characters are between x00-x7E, ASCII, UTF-8 and Latin-1 are all the same, but if I read a non ASCII file by UTF-8, we will find the special character � show up, so try to read with Latin-1. In Latin-1, between \x7F and \xAF is empty, while GB uses full between x00-xFF so if I got any between the two, it's not Latin-1
The code is written in PowerShell, but uses .net so it's easy to be translated into C# or F#
$Utf8NoBomEncoding = New-Object System.Text.UTF8Encoding($False)
foreach($i in Get-ChildItem .\ -Recurse -include *.cpp,*.h, *.ml) {
$openUTF = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader -ArgumentList ($i, [Text.Encoding]::UTF8)
$contentUTF = $openUTF.ReadToEnd()
[regex]$regex = '�'
$c=$regex.Matches($contentUTF).count
$openUTF.Close()
if ($c -ne 0) {
$openLatin1 = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader -ArgumentList ($i, [Text.Encoding]::GetEncoding('ISO-8859-1'))
$contentLatin1 = $openLatin1.ReadToEnd()
$openLatin1.Close()
[regex]$regex = '[\x7F-\xAF]'
$c=$regex.Matches($contentLatin1).count
if ($c -eq 0) {
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllLines($i, $contentLatin1, $Utf8NoBomEncoding)
$i.FullName
}
else {
$openGB = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader -ArgumentList ($i, [Text.Encoding]::GetEncoding('GB18030'))
$contentGB = $openGB.ReadToEnd()
$openGB.Close()
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllLines($i, $contentGB, $Utf8NoBomEncoding)
$i.FullName
}
}
}
Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Press any key to continue...';
$null = $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey('NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown');
The solution proposed by #nonoandy is really interesting, I have succesfully tested it and seems to be working perfectly.
The nuget package needed is Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection (version 8.17.0 at the moment)
I suggest to use the EncodingTypeUtils.GetDotNetName instead of using a switch for getting the Encoding instance:
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding;
...
public Encoding? DetectEncoding(Stream stream)
{
try
{
if (stream.CanSeek)
{
// Read from the beginning if possible
stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
}
// Detect encoding type (enum)
var encodingType = EncodingIdentifier.IdentifyEncoding(stream);
// Get the corresponding encoding name to be passed to System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding
var encodingDotNetName = EncodingTypeUtils.GetDotNetName(encodingType);
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(encodingDotNetName))
{
return Encoding.GetEncoding(encodingDotNetName);
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// Handle exception (log, throw, etc...)
}
// In case of error return null or a default value
return null;
}
I have tried a few different ways to detect encoding and hit issues with most of them.
I made the following leveraging a Microsoft Nuget Package and it seems to work for me so far but needs tested a lot more.
Most of my testing has been on UTF8, UTF8 with BOM and ASNI.
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var path = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() + "\\TextFile2.txt";
List<string> contents = File.ReadLines(path, GetEncoding(path)).Where(w => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(w)).ToList();
int i = 0;
foreach (var line in contents)
{
i++;
Console.WriteLine(line);
if (i > 100)
break;
}
}
public static Encoding GetEncoding(string filename)
{
using (var file = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
var detectedEncoding = Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingIdentifier.IdentifyEncoding(file);
switch (detectedEncoding)
{
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Utf8:
return Encoding.UTF8;
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Utf16Be:
return Encoding.BigEndianUnicode;
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Utf16Le:
return Encoding.Unicode;
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Utf32Le:
return Encoding.UTF32;
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Ascii:
return Encoding.ASCII;
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Iso88591:
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Unknown:
case Microsoft.ProgramSynthesis.Detection.Encoding.EncodingType.Windows1252:
default:
return Encoding.Default;
}
}
}
It may be useful
string path = #"address/to/the/file.extension";
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(path))
{
Console.WriteLine(sr.CurrentEncoding);
}