1Encode::Guess(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Encode::Guess(3)
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6 Encode::Guess -- Guesses encoding from data
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9 # if you are sure $data won't contain anything bogus
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11 use Encode;
12 use Encode::Guess qw/euc-jp shiftjis 7bit-jis/;
13 my $utf8 = decode("Guess", $data);
14 my $data = encode("Guess", $utf8); # this doesn't work!
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16 # more elaborate way
17 use Encode::Guess;
18 my $enc = guess_encoding($data, qw/euc-jp shiftjis 7bit-jis/);
19 ref($enc) or die "Can't guess: $enc"; # trap error this way
20 $utf8 = $enc->decode($data);
21 # or
22 $utf8 = decode($enc->name, $data)
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25 Encode::Guess enables you to guess in what encoding a given data is
26 encoded, or at least tries to.
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29 By default, it checks only ascii, utf8 and UTF-16/32 with BOM.
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31 use Encode::Guess; # ascii/utf8/BOMed UTF
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33 To use it more practically, you have to give the names of encodings to
34 check (suspects as follows). The name of suspects can either be
35 canonical names or aliases.
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37 CAVEAT: Unlike UTF-(16|32), BOM in utf8 is NOT AUTOMATICALLY STRIPPED.
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39 # tries all major Japanese Encodings as well
40 use Encode::Guess qw/euc-jp shiftjis 7bit-jis/;
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42 If the $Encode::Guess::NoUTFAutoGuess variable is set to a true value,
43 no heuristics will be applied to UTF8/16/32, and the result will be
44 limited to the suspects and "ascii".
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46 Encode::Guess->set_suspects
47 You can also change the internal suspects list via "set_suspects"
48 method.
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50 use Encode::Guess;
51 Encode::Guess->set_suspects(qw/euc-jp shiftjis 7bit-jis/);
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53 Encode::Guess->add_suspects
54 Or you can use "add_suspects" method. The difference is that
55 "set_suspects" flushes the current suspects list while
56 "add_suspects" adds.
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58 use Encode::Guess;
59 Encode::Guess->add_suspects(qw/euc-jp shiftjis 7bit-jis/);
60 # now the suspects are euc-jp,shiftjis,7bit-jis, AND
61 # euc-kr,euc-cn, and big5-eten
62 Encode::Guess->add_suspects(qw/euc-kr euc-cn big5-eten/);
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64 Encode::decode("Guess" ...)
65 When you are content with suspects list, you can now
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67 my $utf8 = Encode::decode("Guess", $data);
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69 Encode::Guess->guess($data)
70 But it will croak if:
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72 • Two or more suspects remain
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74 • No suspects left
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76 So you should instead try this;
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78 my $decoder = Encode::Guess->guess($data);
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80 On success, $decoder is an object that is documented in
81 Encode::Encoding. So you can now do this;
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83 my $utf8 = $decoder->decode($data);
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85 On failure, $decoder now contains an error message so the whole
86 thing would be as follows;
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88 my $decoder = Encode::Guess->guess($data);
89 die $decoder unless ref($decoder);
90 my $utf8 = $decoder->decode($data);
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92 guess_encoding($data, [, list of suspects])
93 You can also try "guess_encoding" function which is exported by
94 default. It takes $data to check and it also takes the list of
95 suspects by option. The optional suspect list is not reflected to
96 the internal suspects list.
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98 my $decoder = guess_encoding($data, qw/euc-jp euc-kr euc-cn/);
99 die $decoder unless ref($decoder);
100 my $utf8 = $decoder->decode($data);
101 # check only ascii, utf8 and UTF-(16|32) with BOM
102 my $decoder = guess_encoding($data);
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105 • Because of the algorithm used, ISO-8859 series and other single-
106 byte encodings do not work well unless either one of ISO-8859 is
107 the only one suspect (besides ascii and utf8).
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109 use Encode::Guess;
110 # perhaps ok
111 my $decoder = guess_encoding($data, 'latin1');
112 # definitely NOT ok
113 my $decoder = guess_encoding($data, qw/latin1 greek/);
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115 The reason is that Encode::Guess guesses encoding by trial and
116 error. It first splits $data into lines and tries to decode the
117 line for each suspect. It keeps it going until all but one
118 encoding is eliminated out of suspects list. ISO-8859 series is
119 just too successful for most cases (because it fills almost all
120 code points in \x00-\xff).
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122 • Do not mix national standard encodings and the corresponding vendor
123 encodings.
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125 # a very bad idea
126 my $decoder
127 = guess_encoding($data, qw/shiftjis MacJapanese cp932/);
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129 The reason is that vendor encoding is usually a superset of
130 national standard so it becomes too ambiguous for most cases.
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132 • On the other hand, mixing various national standard encodings
133 automagically works unless $data is too short to allow for
134 guessing.
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136 # This is ok if $data is long enough
137 my $decoder =
138 guess_encoding($data, qw/euc-cn
139 euc-jp shiftjis 7bit-jis
140 euc-kr
141 big5-eten/);
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143 • DO NOT PUT TOO MANY SUSPECTS! Don't you try something like this!
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145 my $decoder = guess_encoding($data,
146 Encode->encodings(":all"));
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148 It is, after all, just a guess. You should alway be explicit when it
149 comes to encodings. But there are some, especially Japanese,
150 environment that guess-coding is a must. Use this module with care.
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153 Encode::Guess does not work on EBCDIC platforms.
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156 Encode, Encode::Encoding
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160perl v5.34.0 2021-10-10 Encode::Guess(3)