1Iconv(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Iconv(3)
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6 Text::Iconv - Perl interface to iconv() codeset conversion function
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9 use Text::Iconv;
10 $converter = Text::Iconv->new("fromcode", "tocode");
11 $converted = $converter->convert("Text to convert");
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14 The Text::Iconv module provides a Perl interface to the iconv()
15 function as defined by the Single UNIX Specification.
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17 The convert() method converts the encoding of characters in the input
18 string from the fromcode codeset to the tocode codeset, and returns the
19 result.
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21 Settings of fromcode and tocode and their permitted combinations are
22 implementation-dependent. Valid values are specified in the system
23 documentation; the iconv(1) utility should also provide a -l option
24 that lists all supported codesets.
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26 Utility methods
27 Text::Iconv objects also provide the following methods:
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29 retval() returns the return value of the underlying iconv() function
30 for the last conversion; according to the Single UNIX Specification,
31 this value indicates "the number of non-identical conversions
32 performed." Note, however, that iconv implementations vary widely in
33 the interpretation of this specification.
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35 This method can be called after calling convert(), e.g.:
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37 $result = $converter->convert("lorem ipsum dolor sit amet");
38 $retval = $converter->retval;
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40 When called before the first call to convert(), or if an error occured
41 during the conversion, retval() returns undef.
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43 get_attr(): This method is only available with GNU libiconv, otherwise
44 it throws an exception. The get_attr() method allows you to query
45 various attributes which influence the behavior of convert(). The
46 currently supported attributes are trivialp, transliterate, and
47 discard_ilseq, e.g.:
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49 $state = $converter->get_attr("transliterate");
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51 See iconvctl(3) for details. To ensure portability to other iconv
52 implementations you should first check for the availability of this
53 method using eval {}, e.g.:
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55 eval { $conv->get_attr("trivialp") };
56 if ($@)
57 {
58 # get_attr() is not available
59 }
60 else
61 {
62 # get_attr() is available
63 }
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65 This method should be considered experimental.
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67 set_attr(): This method is only available with GNU libiconv, otherwise
68 it throws an exception. The set_attr() method allows you to set
69 various attributes which influence the behavior of convert(). The
70 currently supported attributes are transliterate and discard_ilseq,
71 e.g.:
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73 $state = $converter->set_attr("transliterate");
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75 See iconvctl(3) for details. To ensure portability to other iconv
76 implementations you should first check for the availability of this
77 method using eval {}, cf. the description of set_attr() above.
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79 This method should be considered experimental.
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82 If the conversion can't be initialized an exception is raised (using
83 croak()).
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85 Handling of conversion errors
86 Text::Iconv provides a class attribute raise_error and a corresponding
87 class method for setting and getting its value. The handling of errors
88 during conversion depends on the setting of this attribute. If
89 raise_error is set to a true value, an exception is raised; otherwise,
90 the convert() method only returns undef. By default raise_error is
91 false. Example usage:
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93 Text::Iconv->raise_error(1); # Conversion errors raise exceptions
94 Text::Iconv->raise_error(0); # Conversion errors return undef
95 $a = Text::Iconv->raise_error(); # Get current setting
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97 Per-object handling of conversion errors
98 As an experimental feature, Text::Iconv also provides an instance
99 attribute raise_error and a corresponding method for setting and
100 getting its value. If raise_error is undef, the class-wide settings
101 apply. If raise_error is 1 or 0 (true or false), the object settings
102 override the class-wide settings.
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104 Consult iconv(3) for details on errors that might occur.
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106 Conversion of undef
107 Converting undef, e.g.,
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109 $converted = $converter->convert(undef);
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111 always returns undef. This is not considered an error.
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114 The supported codesets, their names, the supported conversions, and the
115 quality of the conversions are all system-dependent.
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118 Michael Piotrowski <mxp@dynalabs.de>
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121 iconv(1), iconv(3)
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125perl v5.28.1 2007-10-17 Iconv(3)