66

I'm using the code below to read a text file that contains foreign characters, the file is encoded ANSI and looks fine in notepad. The code below doesn't work, when the file values are read and shown in the datagrid the characters appear as squares, could there be another problem elsewhere?

StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(inputFilePath, System.Text.Encoding.ANSI);
using (reader = File.OpenText(inputFilePath))

Thanks

Update 1: I have tried all encodings found under System.Text.Encoding. and all fail to show the file correctly.

Update 2: I've changed the file encoding (resaved the file) to unicode and used System.Text.Encoding.Unicode and it worked just fine. So why did notepad read it correctly? And why didn't System.Text.Encoding.Unicode read the ANSI file?

Improve this question
2
  • Are you sure it's encoded in ANSI? Sometimes Notepad will attempt a "best guess" and use a different encoding than you expect. Commented Feb 26, 2009 at 22:58
  • 1
    If notepad determines that a file isn't Unicode or UTF-8, it will fall back on the system locale (set in the control panel -> Region and Language area). Commented Mar 7, 2014 at 18:07

12 Answers 12

Reset to default
135

You may also try the Default encoding, which uses the current system's ANSI codepage.

StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(inputFilePath, Encoding.Default, true)

When you try using the Notepad "Save As" menu with the original file, look at the encoding combo box. It will tell you which encoding notepad guessed is used by the file.

Also, if it is an ANSI file, the detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks parameter will probably not help much.

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

8 Comments

Using Default Encoding worked for me. I had the char (Â) that was being skipped by StreamReader and changing it to default Encoding allowed to to be read correctly. Thanks!
Encoding.Default worked for me... Spanish characters in ANSI format would be read and written like %^ and ? before using Encoding.Default.
Encoding.Default works for me too. Portuguese chars around here.
I am using several different languages and the only solution was the Encoding.Default, true in the initialization of StreamReader.
This answer helped me over six years later: stackoverflow.com/questions/30850387/…
|
32

I had the same problem and my solution was simple: instead of

Encoding.ASCII

use

Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1")

The answer was found here.

Edit: more solutions. This maybe more accurate one:

Encoding.GetEncoding(1252);

Also, in some cases this will work for you too if your OS default encoding matches file encoding:

Encoding.Default;
Improve this answer

3 Comments

My issue was using StringBuilder and output to HttpResponseMessage, and the accents were being replaced. This worked, (result is HttpResponseMessage) result.Content = new StringContent(csv.ToString(), Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1"));
This was me too. For some reason new StreamReader(memoryStream, Encoding.UTF8) wasn't working but new StreamReader(memoryStream,Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1")) did!
Fixed my problem with a ¾ (extended ascii, not unicode) that someone decided to use.
24

Yes, it could be with the actual encoding of the file, probably unicode. Try UTF-8 as that is the most common form of unicode encoding. Otherwise if the file ASCII then standard ASCII encoding should work.

Improve this answer

Comments

10

Using Encoding.Unicode won't accurately decode an ANSI file in the same way that a JPEG decoder won't understand a GIF file.

I'm surprised that Encoding.Default didn't work for the ANSI file if it really was ANSI - if you ever find out exactly which code page Notepad was using, you could use Encoding.GetEncoding(int).

In general, where possible I'd recommend using UTF-8.

Improve this answer

Comments

7

Try a different encoding such as Encoding.UTF8. You can also try letting StreamReader find the encoding itself:

    StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(inputFilePath, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8, true)

Edit: Just saw your update. Try letting StreamReader do the guessing.

Improve this answer

Comments

5

For swedish Å Ä Ö the only solution form the ones above working was:

Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1")

Hopefully this will save someone time.

Improve this answer

Comments

2

File.OpenText() always uses an UTF-8 StreamReader implicitly. Create your own StreamReader instance instead and specify the desired encoding. like 

using (StreamReader reader =  new StreamReader(@"C:\test.txt", Encoding.Default)
 {
 // ...
 }
Improve this answer

Comments

2

I solved my problem of reading portuguese characters, changing the source file on notepad++.

enter image description here

C# 

    var url = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(@"~/Content/data.json");
    string s = string.Empty;
    using (System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(url, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8,true))
    {
          s = sr.ReadToEnd();
    }
Improve this answer

Comments

1

I'm also reading an exported file which contains french and German languages. I used Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1"), true which worked out without any challenges.

Improve this answer

Comments

0

for Arabic, I used Encoding.GetEncoding(1256). it is working good.

Improve this answer

Comments

0

I had a similar problem with ProcessStartInfo and the property StandardOutputEncoding. I set it for German language console output to code page 850. This way I could read the output like ausführen instead of ausf�hren.

Improve this answer

Comments

0

Using .net 8.0 core I settled eventually with below, took me a while though this is common as well for some systems. (other options failed in my case, had to work with data from another system, ANSI is very misleading btw if notepad++ tells you that).

 using (var reader = new StreamReader(filePath, System.Text.Encoding.Latin1)) {
     while ((line = await reader.ReadLineAsync()) != null) {
         lineCounter++;

The most common types are in System.TextEncoding. so best is to check them all.

Improve this answer

Comments

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.