Error when transcoding from UTF16 to UTF8 with utf8_encode

[Matthias Langbein]

Hi all,

when i convert a uploaded file to UTF-8 with the utf8_encode function,
the string is prefixed by the two characters

ÿþ

The file is originally encoded as UTF-16. Can anybody tell me, why
this happens?

Code:

if (isset($_FILES['Datei']) and !$_FILES['Datei']['error']) {
$buffer = file_get_Conten ts($_FILES['Datei']['tmp_name']);
$buffer = utf8_encode($bu ffer);
.....
echo $buffer;
unlink($_FILES['Datei']['tmp_name']);
}

Thanks,
Langi

[Andy Hassall]

Re: Error when transcoding from UTF16 to UTF8 with utf8_encode

On Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:14:28 +0100, Matthias Langbein
<matthias_langb ein@web.dewrote :

>when i convert a uploaded file to UTF-8 with the utf8_encode function,
>the string is prefixed by the two characters
>
>ÿþ

That appears to be a Unicode BOM:

http://unicode.org/unicode/faq/utf_bom.html#BOM

However, it's a UTF-16 big-endian Unicode BOM, and should presumably have been
converted into EF BB BF, the UTF-8 representation, or stripped off.

>The file is originally encoded as UTF-16. Can anybody tell me, why
>this happens?

The utf8_encode function can't convert from UTF-16; it only does ISO-8859-1.
Perhaps you need one of the mbstring functions, such as mb_convert_enco ding.

--
Andy Hassall :: andy@andyh.co.u k :: http://www.andyh.co.uk
http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space :: disk and FTP usage analysis tool