File and text encoding issue

[Heinz_]

Hi, I have the following problem. I create a file using the SaveFileDialog class. The file gets created in ANSI encoding, this according to many programs including notepad and MS Word. But then i try to write strings in non english languages and i get those symbols you know. OK, to try to solve this issue i set the text i want to write to UTF-8 encoding for international character support but the problem is: Have you ever tried to write utf-8 or variants to an ascii file? it's a mess! Is there a way to solve this problem in any way? Creating the file with different encoding (don't know how to do this cause the file gets created in ascii by force) or changing it's encoding type later. Thanx.

[Nader Elshehabi]

Hello

Heinz_ wrote:

The file gets created in ANSI encoding, this according to many programs including notepad and MS Word.

Who in the world said that?!?!? You can create your file in any format you want. Besides, if you want to write text in UTF-8, here is a sample:

SaveFileDialog save = new SaveFileDialog();
save.ShowDialog();
StreamWriter Fs = File.CreateText(save.FileName);
Fs.WriteLine("Test");
Fs.WriteLine("اختبار");
Fs.WriteLine("épreuve");
Fs.WriteLine("Prüfung");
Fs.WriteLine("试验");
Fs.WriteLine("試験");
Fs.Flush();

Regards:rose:

[Heinz_]

Hi, thanx for your answer and your code. I know taht your code works cause i have used this write method tons of time but this time i'm using the Stream class returned by SaveFileDialog.OpenFile(), this write method uses arrays of bytes to write to the files so characters in strings must be converted to bytes corresponding to the encoding type. This is where this encoding type compatibility game begins. I think i'll have to recode this block of code again to use the great StreamWriter, thanks in advance, Heinz

[Heinz_]

Nader Elshehabi wrote:

Heinz_ wrote: The file gets created in ANSI encoding, this according to many programs including notepad and MS Word. Who in the world said that?!?!?

Regarding to this, when you call SaveFileDialog.ShowDialog() and the DialogResult is OK, or al least when you call SaveFileDialog.OpenFile(), your file gets created automatically and by force in an ANSI or ASCII formatting, check this info by opening the file with any word editing software that can show you the formatting type info. This is how it works, i didn't say anything, don't blame me.

[Heinz_]

I tried the above write method, it works ok, it writes international characters (checked by opening it with notepad) and the encoding type of the file is UTF-8. The file i create and write is a csv. I have another problem now, when i open this file with Excel these special characters are replaced by those weird symbols. Thats an Excel bug but how to solve it? Thanks.

[Nader Elshehabi]

Hello For this you have to check the language settings of Excel, or even your windows. Sorry, I don't think I can be of an assistance there. Regards:rose: