Data Conversion using enca, iconv

Problem:
When users want to browse file, but finding the garbled code(亂碼) in the file.

Occurrence opportunity:
Mostly happen in file conversion from different O.S because Windows default encoding system is BIG-5, and MacOS’s is UTF-8.

Supplement:
BIG5 與GB2312 是繁體中文與簡體中文最常採用的ANSI 形式編碼

Solution:

1. User need manually to convert the script or file, even finding specific software to solve with it.
2. Typing instructions in command line (Terminal in Linux and MacOS; DOS in Windows) —> I will introduce manners in this case.

There are two instructions, one is enca, the other is iconv, can resolve this issue.

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First,

enca

Synopsis:

  enca [-L LANGUAGE] [OPTION]... [FILE]...

Instruction:

  enca -L zh_CN file_name //檢查文件的編碼
  enca -L zh_CN -x UTF-8 file_name //將文件編碼轉換為“UTF-8”編碼
  enca -L zh_CN -x UTF-8  file2_name //如果不想覆蓋原文件可以這樣

parameter:

 -x means convert to, and zh_CN means Chinese encoding.

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Second,

iconv

Synopsis:

  iconv [OPTION...] [-f encoding] [-t encoding] [inputfile ...]

Instruction:

  iconv -f BIG-5 UTF-8 big5.txt > utf8.txt

parameter

  -f encoding, --from-code=encoding