Re: Unicode to ASCII string conversion

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Ger (ger.rietman_at_rathernospam.sailsoft.nl)
Date: 09/14/04 

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 16:31:43 +0200

Thank you very much guys for your help and clearing up the issue for me.
I will go for Jay's solution and use ANSI 8-bit.
/Ger

"Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]" <Jay_Harlow_MVP@msn.com> schreef in bericht
news:%23RwyVzlmEHA.3328@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Ger,
> > Ah, now I think I get the idea. So when I convert a (Unicode) string
into
> > an
> > ascii byte array, and then the byte array back into a string, I still
have
> > Unicode, right?
> Correct, just remember that you will loose some characters going to & from
> ASCII.
>
> > So that is of no use when you want to write ASCII to a
> > filestream.
> If you need an ASCII file, then use a ASCII encoding. It really depends on
> what is going to read the file again.
>
> I would recommend with an ANSI encoding (see below) or UTF8 encoding. With
> ASCII you will loose all extended characters (ASCII is 7 bit encoding),
with
> ANSI you will loose characters that are outside of your regional ANSI code
> page. UTF8 preserves all Unicode characters. I would recommend ANSI
encoding
> if the file was going to be opened by casual users in Notepad. I would
> recommend UTF8 if full Unicode support is required. ANSI & UTF8 are both 8
> bit encodings.
>
>
> > Is the code below then writing ASCII output to my filestream?
>
> Yes that code is writing ASCII, as you included the ASCII encoding on the
> StreamWriter constructor.
>
> The text file itself will contain ASCII characters, when you subsequently
> open that text stream and read it (with a StreamReader) it will be
converted
> back to Unicode strings. When reading the file back try to use the same
> encoding as written. For example if you wrote ANSI, then use ANSI to read.
> If you wrote UTF8, then use UTF8 to read. As ANSI & UTF8 encode characters
> 127 to 255 differently. Remember that Encoding.UTF8 is used on the stream
> writer if you do not give one, if you are reading text files created by
> Notepad, then you want Encoding.Default.
>
> I would recommend:
>
> > Dim wOutput As New StreamWriter(fsOutput, System.Text.Encoding.Default)
>
> Which will write the file in your current ANSI code page as defined by the
> regional settings in Windows Control Panel. Which will preserve extended
> characters.
>
> Remember that ANSI is an 8 bit encoding that is dependent on region (code
> page). While ASCII is a 7 bit encoding, ASCII does not support extended
> characters such as ë. It will be converted into either a normal e or a ?.
>
> Hope this helps
> Jay
>
> "Ger" <ger.rietman@rathernospam.sailsoft.nl> wrote in message
> news:uU3WK3kmEHA.2772@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> > Ah, now I think I get the idea. So when I convert a (unicode) string
into
> > an
> > ascii byte array, and then the byte array back into a string, I still
have
> > Unicode, right? So that is of no use when you want to write ASCII to a
> > filestream.
> >
> > Is the code below then writing ASCII output to my filestream?
> >
> > Dim UnicodeString As String = "abcdëfg"
> > Dim fsOutput as New FileStream(..)
> > Dim wOutput As New StreamWriter(fsOutput, System.Text.Encoding.ASCII)
> > wOutput.WriteLine(UnicodeString)
> >
> > Thank you for your reply.
> >
> > /Ger
> >
> >
> > "Cor Ligthert" <notfirstname@planet.nl> schreef in bericht
> > news:eWAgM%23imEHA.3564@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> >> Ger,
> >>
> >> > Thanks for your reply, but this returns a byte array. I ment straight
> >> > forward string-to-string conversion. It is possible ofcourse to write
a
> >> > simple function to do this and using the encoding class, but I was
just
> >> > wondering why the framework does not support the "direct
> >> string-to-string".
> >>
> >> In the dotNet is a "String" is forever a string of unicode Chars. What
> >> you
> >> call "ascii string" is forever a bytearray.
> >>
> >> Therefore as an answer there is nothing more than Herfried suggested.
> >> Although you can create an array of objects which contains bytes,
however
> >> that is no solution in my opinion.
> >>
> >> I hope this helps to get the idea?
> >>
> >> Cor
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>

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