# Encodings¶ ↑

## The Basics¶ ↑

A character encoding, often shortened to encoding, is a mapping between:

- A sequence of 8-bit bytes (each byte in the range `0..255`).

- Characters in a specific character set.

Some character sets contain only 1-byte characters; US-ASCII, for example, has 256 1-byte characters. This string, encoded in US-ASCII, has six characters that are stored as six bytes:

    s = 'Hello!'.encode('US-ASCII')  # => "Hello!"
    s.encoding                       # => #<Encoding:US-ASCII>
    s.bytes                          # => [72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 33]

Other encodings may involve multi-byte characters. UTF-8, for example, encodes more than one million characters, encoding each in one to four bytes. The lowest-valued of these characters correspond to ASCII characters, and so are 1-byte characters:

    s = 'Hello!' # => "Hello!"
    s.bytes      # => [72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 33]

Other characters, such as the Euro symbol, are multi-byte:

    s = "\u20ac" # => "€"
    s.bytes      # => [226, 130, 172]

## The Encoding Class¶ ↑

### Encoding Objects¶ ↑

Ruby encodings are defined by constants in class Encoding. There can be only one instance of Encoding for each of these constants. Method `Encoding.list` returns an array of Encoding objects (one for each constant):

    Encoding.list.size        # => 103
    Encoding.list.first.class # => Encoding
    Encoding.list.take(3)
    # => [#<Encoding:ASCII-8BIT>, #<Encoding:UTF-8>, #<Encoding:US-ASCII>]

### Names and Aliases¶ ↑

Method `Encoding#name` returns the name of an Encoding:

    Encoding::ASCII_8BIT.name  # => "ASCII-8BIT"
    Encoding::WINDOWS_31J.name # => "Windows-31J"

An Encoding object has zero or more aliases; method `Encoding#names` returns an array containing the name and all aliases:

    Encoding::ASCII_8BIT.names
    # => ["ASCII-8BIT", "BINARY"]
    Encoding::WINDOWS_31J.names
    #=> ["Windows-31J", "CP932", "csWindows31J", "SJIS", "PCK"]

Method `Encoding.aliases` returns a hash of all alias/name pairs:

    Encoding.aliases.size # => 71
    Encoding.aliases.take(3)
    # => [["BINARY", "ASCII-8BIT"], ["CP437", "IBM437"], ["CP720", "IBM720"]]

Method `Encoding.name_list` returns an array of all the encoding names and aliases:

    Encoding.name_list.size # => 175
    Encoding.name_list.take(3)
    # => ["ASCII-8BIT", "UTF-8", "US-ASCII"]

Method `name_list` returns more entries than method `list` because it includes both the names and their aliases.

Method `Encoding.find` returns the Encoding for a given name or alias, if it exists:

    Encoding.find("US-ASCII")       # => #<Encoding:US-ASCII>
    Encoding.find("US-ASCII").class # => Encoding

### Default Encodings¶ ↑

Method `Encoding.find`, above, also returns a default Encoding for each of these special names:

- `external`: the default external Encoding:

      Encoding.find("external") # => #<Encoding:UTF-8>

- `internal`: the default internal Encoding (may be `nil`):

      Encoding.find("internal") # => nil

- `locale`: the default Encoding for a string from the environment:

      Encoding.find("locale") # => #<Encoding:UTF-8>  # Linux
      Encoding.find("locale") # => #<Encoding:IBM437> # Windows

- `filesystem`: the default Encoding for a string from the filesystem:

      Encoding.find("filesystem") # => #<Encoding:UTF-8>

Method `Encoding.default_external` returns the default external Encoding:

    Encoding.default_external # => #<Encoding:UTF-8>

Method `Encoding.default_external=` sets that value:

    Encoding.default_external = 'US-ASCII' # => "US-ASCII"
    Encoding.default_external              # => #<Encoding:US-ASCII>

Method `Encoding.default_internal` returns the default internal Encoding:

    Encoding.default_internal # => nil

Method `Encoding.default_internal=` sets the default internal Encoding:

    Encoding.default_internal = 'US-ASCII' # => "US-ASCII"
    Encoding.default_internal              # => #<Encoding:US-ASCII>

### Compatible Encodings¶ ↑

Method `Encoding.compatible?` returns whether two given objects are encoding-compatible (that is, whether they can be concatenated); returns the Encoding of the concatenated string, or `nil` if incompatible:

    rus = "\u{442 435 441 442}"
    eng = 'text'
    Encoding.compatible?(rus, eng) # => #<Encoding:UTF-8>

    s0 = "\xa1\xa1".force_encoding('iso-8859-1') # => "\xA1\xA1"
    s1 = "\xa1\xa1".force_encoding('euc-jp')     # => "\x{A1A1}"
    Encoding.compatible?(s0, s1)                 # => nil

## String Encoding¶ ↑

A Ruby `String` object has an encoding that is an instance of class Encoding. The encoding may be retrieved by method `String#encoding`.

The default encoding for a string literal is the script encoding; see Script Encoding.

    's'.encoding # => #<Encoding:UTF-8>

The default encoding for a string created with method `String.new` is:

- For a String object argument, the encoding of that string.

- For a string literal, the script encoding; see Script Encoding.

In either case, any encoding may be specified:

    s = String.new(encoding: 'UTF-8')             # => ""
    s.encoding                                    # => #<Encoding:UTF-8>
    s = String.new('foo', encoding: 'ASCII-8BIT') # => "foo"
    s.encoding                                    # => #<Encoding:ASCII-8BIT>

The encoding for a string may be changed:

    s = "R\xC3\xA9sum\xC3\xA9"     # => "Résumé"
    s.encoding                     # => #<Encoding:UTF-8>
    s.force_encoding('ISO-8859-1') # => "R\xC3\xA9sum\xC3\xA9"
    s.encoding                     # => #<Encoding:ISO-8859-1>

Changing the assigned encoding does not alter the content of the string; it changes only the way the content is to be interpreted:

    s                         # => "R\xC3\xA9sum\xC3\xA9"
    s.force_encoding('UTF-8') # => "Résumé"

The actual content of a string may also be altered; see Transcoding a String.

Here are a couple of useful query methods:

    s = "abc".force_encoding("UTF-8")         # => "abc"
    s.ascii_only?                             # => true
    s = "abc\u{6666}".force_encoding("UTF-8") # => "abc晦"
    s.ascii_only?                             # => false

    s = "\xc2\xa1".force_encoding("UTF-8") # => "¡"
    s.valid_encoding?                      # => true
    s = "\xc2".force_encoding("UTF-8")     # => "\xC2"
    s.valid_encoding?                      # => false

## Symbol and Regexp Encodings¶ ↑

The string stored in a `Symbol` or `Regexp` object also has an encoding; the encoding may be retrieved by method `Symbol#encoding` or `Regexp#encoding`.

The default encoding for these, however, is:

- US-ASCII, if all characters are US-ASCII.

- The script encoding, otherwise; see (Script Script Encoding] at `Encoding)[rdoc-ref:encodings.rdoc`.

## Filesystem Encoding¶ ↑

The filesystem encoding is the default Encoding for a string from the filesystem:

    Encoding.find("filesystem") # => #<Encoding:UTF-8>

## Locale Encoding¶ ↑

The locale encoding is the default encoding for a string from the environment, other than from the filesystem:

    Encoding.find('locale') # => #<Encoding:IBM437>

## Stream Encodings¶ ↑

Certain stream objects can have two encodings; these objects include instances of:

- `IO`.

- `File`.

- `ARGF`.

- `StringIO`.

The two encodings are:

- An external encoding, which identifies the encoding of the stream.

- An internal encoding, which (if not `nil`) specifies the encoding to be used for the string constructed from the stream.

### External Encoding¶ ↑

The external encoding, which is an Encoding object, specifies how bytes read from the stream are to be interpreted as characters.

The default external encoding is:

- UTF-8 for a text stream.

- ASCII-8BIT for a binary stream.

The default external encoding is returned by method `Encoding.default_external`, and may be set by:

- Ruby command-line options `--external_encoding` or `-E`.

You can also set the default external encoding using method `Encoding.default_external=`, but doing so may cause problems; strings created before and after the change may have a different encodings.

For an IO or File object, the external encoding may be set by:

- Open options `external_encoding` or `encoding`, when the object is created; see Open Options.

For an IO, File, ARGF, or StringIO object, the external encoding may be set by:

- Methods `set_encoding` or (except for ARGF) `set_encoding_by_bom`.

### Internal Encoding¶ ↑

The internal encoding, which is an Encoding object or `nil`, specifies how characters read from the stream are to be converted to characters in the internal encoding; those characters become a string whose encoding is set to the internal encoding.

The default internal encoding is `nil` (no conversion). It is returned by method `Encoding.default_internal`, and may be set by:

- Ruby command-line options `--internal_encoding` or `-E`.

You can also set the default internal encoding using method `Encoding.default_internal=`, but doing so may cause problems; strings created before and after the change may have a different encodings.

For an IO or File object, the internal encoding may be set by:

- Open options `internal_encoding` or `encoding`, when the object is created; see Open Options.

For an IO, File, ARGF, or StringIO object, the internal encoding may be set by:

- Method `set_encoding`.

## Script Encoding¶ ↑

A Ruby script has a script encoding, which may be retrieved by:

    __ENCODING__ # => #<Encoding:UTF-8>

The default script encoding is UTF-8; a Ruby source file may set its script encoding with a magic comment on the first line of the file (or second line, if there is a shebang on the first). The comment must contain the word `coding` or `encoding`, followed by a colon, space and the `Encoding` name or alias:

    # encoding: ISO-8859-1
    __ENCODING__ #=> #<Encoding:ISO-8859-1>

## Transcoding¶ ↑

Transcoding is the process of changing a sequence of characters from one encoding to another.

As far as possible, the characters remain the same, but the bytes that represent them may change.

The handling for characters that cannot be represented in the destination encoding may be specified by @Encoding+Options.

### Transcoding a String¶ ↑

Each of these methods transcodes a string:

- `String#encode`: Transcodes `self` into a new string according to given encodings and options.

- `String#encode!`: Like `String#encode`, but transcodes `self` in place.

- `String#scrub`: Transcodes `self` into a new string by replacing invalid byte sequences with a given or default replacement string.

- `String#scrub!`: Like `String#scrub`, but transcodes `self` in place.

- `String#unicode_normalize`: Transcodes `self` into a new string according to Unicode normalization.

- `String#unicode_normalize!`: Like `String#unicode_normalize`, but transcodes `self` in place.

## Transcoding a Stream¶ ↑

Each of these methods may transcode a stream; whether it does so depends on the external and internal encodings:

- `IO.foreach`: Yields each line of given stream to the block.

- `IO.new`: Creates and returns a new IO object for the given integer file descriptor.

- `IO.open`: Creates a new IO object.

- `IO.pipe`: Creates a connected pair of reader and writer IO objects.

- `IO.popen`: Creates an IO object to interact with a subprocess.

- `IO.read`: Returns a string with all or a subset of bytes from the given stream.

- `IO.readlines`: Returns an array of strings, which are the lines from the given stream.

- `IO.write`: Writes a given string to the given stream.

This example writes a string to a file, encoding it as ISO-8859-1, then reads the file into a new string, encoding it as UTF-8:

    s = "R\u00E9sum\u00E9"
    path = 't.tmp'
    ext_enc = 'ISO-8859-1'
    int_enc = 'UTF-8'

    File.write(path, s, external_encoding: ext_enc)
    raw_text = File.binread(path)

    transcoded_text = File.read(path, external_encoding: ext_enc, internal_encoding: int_enc)

    p raw_text
    p transcoded_text

Output:

    "R\xE9sum\xE9"
    "Résumé"

## Encoding Options¶ ↑

A number of methods in the Ruby core accept keyword arguments as encoding options.

Some of the options specify or utilize a replacement string, to be used in certain transcoding operations. A replacement string may be in any encoding that can be converted to the encoding of the destination string.

These keyword-value pairs specify encoding options:

- For an invalid byte sequence:

  - `:invalid: nil` (default): Raise exception.

  - `:invalid: :replace`: Replace each invalid byte sequence with the replacement string.

  Examples:

      s = "\x80foo\x80"
      s.encode('ISO-8859-3') # Raises Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError.
      s.encode('ISO-8859-3', invalid: :replace) # => "?foo?"

- For an undefined character:

  - `:undef: nil` (default): Raise exception.

  - `:undef: :replace`: Replace each undefined character with the replacement string.

  Examples:

      s = "\x80foo\x80"
      "\x80".encode('UTF-8', 'ASCII-8BIT') # Raises Encoding::UndefinedConversionError.
      s.encode('UTF-8', 'ASCII-8BIT', undef: :replace) # => "�foo�"

- Replacement string:

  - `:replace: nil` (default): `Set` replacement string to default value: `"\uFFFD"` (“�”) for a Unicode encoding, `'?'` otherwise.

  - `:replace: some_string`: `Set` replacement string to the given `some_string`; overrides `:fallback`.

  Examples:

      s = "\xA5foo\xA5"
      options = {:undef => :replace, :replace => 'xyzzy'}
      s.encode('UTF-8', 'ISO-8859-3', **options) # => "xyzzyfooxyzzy"

- Replacement fallback:

  One of these may be specified:

  - `:fallback: nil` (default): No replacement fallback.

  - `:fallback: hash_like_object`: `Set` replacement fallback to the given `hash_like_object`; the replacement string is `hash_like_object[X]`.

  - `:fallback: method`: `Set` replacement fallback to the given `method`; the replacement string is `method(X)`.

  - `:fallback: proc`: `Set` replacement fallback to the given `proc`; the replacement string is `proc[X]`.

  Examples:

      s = "\u3042foo\u3043"

      hash = {"\u3042" => 'xyzzy'}
      hash.default = 'XYZZY'
      s.encode('ASCII', fallback: h) # => "xyzzyfooXYZZY"

      def (fallback = "U+%.4X").escape(x)
        self % x.unpack("U")
      end
      "\u{3042}".encode("US-ASCII", fallback: fallback.method(:escape)) # => "U+3042"

      proc = Proc.new {|x| x == "\u3042" ? 'xyzzy' : 'XYZZY' }
      s.encode('ASCII', fallback: proc) # => "XYZZYfooXYZZY"

- XML entities:

  One of these may be specified:

  - `:xml: nil` (default): No handling for XML entities.

  - `:xml: :text`: Treat source text as XML; replace each undefined character with its upper-case hexdecimal numeric character reference, except that:

    - `&` is replaced with `&amp;`.

    - `<` is replaced with `&lt;`.

    - `>` is replaced with `&gt;`.

  - `:xml: :attr`: Treat source text as XML attribute value; replace each undefined character with its upper-case hexdecimal numeric character reference, except that:

    - The replacement string `r` is double-quoted (`"r"`).

    - Each embedded double-quote is replaced with `&quot;`.

    - `&` is replaced with `&amp;`.

    - `<` is replaced with `&lt;`.

    - `>` is replaced with `&gt;`.

  Examples:

      s = 'foo"<&>"bar' + "\u3042"
      s.encode('ASCII', xml: :text) # => "foo\"&lt;&amp;&gt;\"bar&#x3042;"
      s.encode('ASCII', xml: :attr) # => "\"foo&quot;&lt;&amp;&gt;&quot;bar&#x3042;\""

- Newlines:

  One of these may be specified:

  - `:cr_newline: true`: Replace each line-feed character (`"\n"`) with a carriage-return character (`"\r"`).

  - `:crlf_newline: true`: Replace each line-feed character (`"\n"`) with a carriage-return/line-feed string (`"\r\n"`).

  - `:universal_newline: true`: Replace each carriage-return character (`"\r"`) and each carriage-return/line-feed string (`"\r\n"`) with a line-feed character (`"\n"`).

  Examples:

      s = "\n \r \r\n"                           # => "\n \r \r\n"
      s.encode('ASCII', cr_newline: true)        # => "\r \r \r\r"
      s.encode('ASCII', crlf_newline: true)      # => "\r\n \r \r\r\n"
      s.encode('ASCII', universal_newline: true) # => "\n \n \n"