stri_encode: Convert Strings Between Given Encodings

Description

These functions convert a character vector between encodings.

Usage

stri_encode(str, from = NULL, to = NULL, to_raw = FALSE)
stri_conv(str, from = NULL, to = NULL, to_raw = FALSE)

Arguments

str

a character vector, a raw vector, or a list of raw vectors to be converted

from

input encoding: NULL or "" for default encoding or internal encoding marks usage (see Details); otherwise, a single string with encoding name, see stri_enc_list

target encoding: NULL or "" for default encoding (see stri_enc_get), or a single string with encoding name

to_raw

a single logical value; indicates whether a list of raw vectors shall be returned rather than a character vector

Value

If to_raw is FALSE, then a character vector with encoded strings (and sensible encoding marks) is returned. Otherwise, a list of raw vectors is produced.

Details

stri_conv is an alias for stri_encode. These two functions aim to replace R's iconv. It is not only faster, but also works in the same manner on all platforms. Please refer to stri_enc_list for the list of supported encodings and stringi-encoding for a general discussion. If str is a character vector and from is either missing, "", or NULL, then the declared encodings are used (see stri_enc_mark) -- in such a case bytes-declared strings are disallowed. Otherwise, the internal encoding declarations are ignored and a converter selected with from is used. On the other hand, for str being a raw vector or a list of raw vectors, we assume that the input encoding is the current default encoding as given by stri_enc_get. For to_raw=FALSE, the output strings have always marked encodings according to the target converter used (as specified by to) and the current default Encoding (ASCII, latin1, UTF-8, native, or bytes in all other cases). Note that problems may occur if to indicates e.g UTF-16 or UTF-32, as the output strings may have embedded NULs. In such cases use to_raw=TRUE and consider specifying a byte order marker (BOM) for portability reasons (e.g. set UTF-16 or UTF-32 which automatically adds BOMs). Note that stri_encode(as.raw(data), "encodingname") is a wise substitute for rawToChar. In the current version of stringi, if an incorrect code point is found on input, it is replaced by the default (for that target encoding) substitute character and a warning is generated.

References

Conversion -- ICU User Guide, http://userguide.icu-project.org/conversion Converters -- ICU User Guide, http://userguide.icu-project.org/conversion/converters (technical details)