## Character Set Conversion

Character Set Conversion — convert strings between different character sets

## Synopsis

    #include <glib.h>

    gchar *             g_convert                           (const gchar *str,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             const gchar *to_codeset,
                                                             const gchar *from_codeset,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);
    gchar *             g_convert_with_fallback             (const gchar *str,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             const gchar *to_codeset,
                                                             const gchar *from_codeset,
                                                             const gchar *fallback,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);
                        GIConv;
    gchar *             g_convert_with_iconv                (const gchar *str,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             GIConv converter,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);
    #define             G_CONVERT_ERROR
    GIConv              g_iconv_open                        (const gchar *to_codeset,
                                                             const gchar *from_codeset);
    gsize               g_iconv                             (GIConv converter,
                                                             gchar **inbuf,
                                                             gsize *inbytes_left,
                                                             gchar **outbuf,
                                                             gsize *outbytes_left);
    gint                g_iconv_close                       (GIConv converter);
    gchar *             g_locale_to_utf8                    (const gchar *opsysstring,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);
    gchar *             g_filename_to_utf8                  (const gchar *opsysstring,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);
    gchar *             g_filename_from_utf8                (const gchar *utf8string,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);
    gboolean            g_get_filename_charsets             (const gchar ***charsets);
    gchar *             g_filename_display_name             (const gchar *filename);
    gchar *             g_filename_display_basename         (const gchar *filename);
    gchar *             g_locale_from_utf8                  (const gchar *utf8string,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);
    enum                GConvertError;

    gboolean            g_get_charset                       (const char **charset);
    gchar *             g_get_codeset                       (void);

## Description

The `g_convert()` family of function wraps the functionality of `iconv()`. In addition to pure character set conversions, GLib has functions to deal with the extra complications of encodings for file names.

### File Name Encodings

Historically, Unix has not had a defined encoding for file names: a file name is valid as long as it does not have path separators in it ("/"). However, displaying file names may require conversion: from the character set in which they were created, to the character set in which the application operates. Consider the Spanish file name "`Presentación.sxi`". If the application which created it uses ISO-8859-1 for its encoding,

    Character:  P  r  e  s  e  n  t  a  c  i  ó  n  .  s  x  i
    Hex code:   50 72 65 73 65 6e 74 61 63 69 f3 6e 2e 73 78 69

However, if the application use UTF-8, the actual file name on disk would look like this:

    Character:  P  r  e  s  e  n  t  a  c  i  ó     n  .  s  x  i
    Hex code:   50 72 65 73 65 6e 74 61 63 69 c3 b3 6e 2e 73 78 69

Glib uses UTF-8 for its strings, and GUI toolkits like GTK+ that use Glib do the same thing. If you get a file name from the file system, for example, from readdir(3) or from `g_dir_read_name()`, and you wish to display the file name to the user, you will need to convert it into UTF-8. The opposite case is when the user types the name of a file he wishes to save: the toolkit will give you that string in UTF-8 encoding, and you will need to convert it to the character set used for file names before you can create the file with open(2) or fopen(3).

By default, Glib assumes that file names on disk are in UTF-8 encoding. This is a valid assumption for file systems which were created relatively recently: most applications use UTF-8 encoding for their strings, and that is also what they use for the file names they create. However, older file systems may still contain file names created in "older" encodings, such as ISO-8859-1. In this case, for compatibility reasons, you may want to instruct Glib to use that particular encoding for file names rather than UTF-8. You can do this by specifying the encoding for file names in the `G_FILENAME_ENCODING` environment variable. For example, if your installation uses ISO-8859-1 for file names, you can put this in your `~/.profile`:

    export G_FILENAME_ENCODING=ISO-8859-1

Glib provides the functions `g_filename_to_utf8()` and `g_filename_from_utf8()` to perform the necessary conversions. These functions convert file names from the encoding specified in `G_FILENAME_ENCODING` to UTF-8 and vice-versa. Figure 2, “Conversion between File Name Encodings” illustrates how these functions are used to convert between UTF-8 and the encoding for file names in the file system.

Figure 2. Conversion between File Name Encodings

#### Checklist for Application Writers

This section is a practical summary of the detailed description above. You can use this as a checklist of things to do to make sure your applications process file name encodings correctly.

1. If you get a file name from the file system from a function such as readdir(3) or `gtk_file_chooser_get_filename()`, you do not need to do any conversion to pass that file name to functions like open(2), rename(2), or fopen(3) — those are "raw" file names which the file system understands.

2. If you need to display a file name, convert it to UTF-8 first by using `g_filename_to_utf8()`. If conversion fails, display a string like "`Unknown file name`". Do not convert this string back into the encoding used for file names if you wish to pass it to the file system; use the original file name instead. For example, the document window of a word processor could display "Unknown file name" in its title bar but still let the user save the file, as it would keep the raw file name internally. This can happen if the user has not set the `G_FILENAME_ENCODING` environment variable even though he has files whose names are not encoded in UTF-8.

3. If your user interface lets the user type a file name for saving or renaming, convert it to the encoding used for file names in the file system by using `g_filename_from_utf8()`. Pass the converted file name to functions like fopen(3). If conversion fails, ask the user to enter a different file name. This can happen if the user types Japanese characters when `G_FILENAME_ENCODING` is set to `ISO-8859-1`, for example.

## Details

### g_convert ()

    gchar *             g_convert                           (const gchar *str,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             const gchar *to_codeset,
                                                             const gchar *from_codeset,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);

Converts a string from one character set to another.

Note that you should use `g_iconv()` for streaming conversions[3].

`str` : | the string to convert
`len` : | the length of the string, or -1 if the string is nul-terminated[2].
`to_codeset` : | name of character set into which to convert `str`
`from_codeset` : | character set of `str`.
`bytes_read` : | location to store the number of bytes in the input string that were successfully converted, or `NULL`. Even if the conversion was successful, this may be less than `len` if there were partial characters at the end of the input. If the error G_CONVERT_ERROR_ILLEGAL_SEQUENCE occurs, the value stored will the byte offset after the last valid input sequence. [out]
`bytes_written` : | the number of bytes stored in the output buffer (not including the terminating nul). [out]
`error` : | location to store the error occurring, or `NULL` to ignore errors. Any of the errors in GConvertError may occur.
Returns : | If the conversion was successful, a newly allocated nul-terminated string, which must be freed with `g_free()`. Otherwise `NULL` and `error` will be set.

### g_convert_with_fallback ()

    gchar *             g_convert_with_fallback             (const gchar *str,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             const gchar *to_codeset,
                                                             const gchar *from_codeset,
                                                             const gchar *fallback,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);

Converts a string from one character set to another, possibly including fallback sequences for characters not representable in the output. Note that it is not guaranteed that the specification for the fallback sequences in `fallback` will be honored. Some systems may do an approximate conversion from `from_codeset` to `to_codeset` in their `iconv()` functions, in which case GLib will simply return that approximate conversion.

Note that you should use `g_iconv()` for streaming conversions[3].

`str` : | the string to convert
`len` : | the length of the string, or -1 if the string is nul-terminated[2].
`to_codeset` : | name of character set into which to convert `str`
`from_codeset` : | character set of `str`.
`fallback` : | UTF-8 string to use in place of character not present in the target encoding. (The string must be representable in the target encoding). If `NULL`, characters not in the target encoding will be represented as Unicode escapes \uxxxx or \Uxxxxyyyy.
`bytes_read` : | location to store the number of bytes in the input string that were successfully converted, or `NULL`. Even if the conversion was successful, this may be less than `len` if there were partial characters at the end of the input.
`bytes_written` : | the number of bytes stored in the output buffer (not including the terminating nul).
`error` : | location to store the error occurring, or `NULL` to ignore errors. Any of the errors in GConvertError may occur.
Returns : | If the conversion was successful, a newly allocated nul-terminated string, which must be freed with `g_free()`. Otherwise `NULL` and `error` will be set.

### GIConv

    typedef struct _GIConv GIConv;

### g_convert_with_iconv ()

    gchar *             g_convert_with_iconv                (const gchar *str,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             GIConv converter,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);

Converts a string from one character set to another.

Note that you should use `g_iconv()` for streaming conversions[3].

`str` : | the string to convert
`len` : | the length of the string, or -1 if the string is nul-terminated[2].
`converter` : | conversion descriptor from `g_iconv_open()`
`bytes_read` : | location to store the number of bytes in the input string that were successfully converted, or `NULL`. Even if the conversion was successful, this may be less than `len` if there were partial characters at the end of the input. If the error G_CONVERT_ERROR_ILLEGAL_SEQUENCE occurs, the value stored will the byte offset after the last valid input sequence.
`bytes_written` : | the number of bytes stored in the output buffer (not including the terminating nul).
`error` : | location to store the error occurring, or `NULL` to ignore errors. Any of the errors in GConvertError may occur.
Returns : | If the conversion was successful, a newly allocated nul-terminated string, which must be freed with `g_free()`. Otherwise `NULL` and `error` will be set.

### G_CONVERT_ERROR

    #define G_CONVERT_ERROR g_convert_error_quark()

Error domain for character set conversions. Errors in this domain will be from the GConvertError enumeration. See GError for information on error domains.

### g_iconv_open ()

    GIConv              g_iconv_open                        (const gchar *to_codeset,
                                                             const gchar *from_codeset);

Same as the standard UNIX routine `iconv_open()`, but may be implemented via libiconv on UNIX flavors that lack a native implementation.

GLib provides `g_convert()` and `g_locale_to_utf8()` which are likely more convenient than the raw iconv wrappers.

`to_codeset` : | destination codeset
`from_codeset` : | source codeset
Returns : | a "conversion descriptor", or (GIConv)-1 if opening the converter failed.

### g_iconv ()

    gsize               g_iconv                             (GIConv converter,
                                                             gchar **inbuf,
                                                             gsize *inbytes_left,
                                                             gchar **outbuf,
                                                             gsize *outbytes_left);

Same as the standard UNIX routine `iconv()`, but may be implemented via libiconv on UNIX flavors that lack a native implementation.

GLib provides `g_convert()` and `g_locale_to_utf8()` which are likely more convenient than the raw iconv wrappers.

`converter` : | conversion descriptor from `g_iconv_open()`
`inbuf` : | bytes to convert
`inbytes_left` : | inout parameter, bytes remaining to convert in `inbuf`
`outbuf` : | converted output bytes
`outbytes_left` : | inout parameter, bytes available to fill in `outbuf`
Returns : | count of non-reversible conversions, or -1 on error

### g_iconv_close ()

    gint                g_iconv_close                       (GIConv converter);

Same as the standard UNIX routine `iconv_close()`, but may be implemented via libiconv on UNIX flavors that lack a native implementation. Should be called to clean up the conversion descriptor from `g_iconv_open()` when you are done converting things.

GLib provides `g_convert()` and `g_locale_to_utf8()` which are likely more convenient than the raw iconv wrappers.

`converter` : | a conversion descriptor from `g_iconv_open()`
Returns : | -1 on error, 0 on success

### g_locale_to_utf8 ()

    gchar *             g_locale_to_utf8                    (const gchar *opsysstring,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);

Converts a string which is in the encoding used for strings by the C runtime (usually the same as that used by the operating system) in the current locale into a UTF-8 string.

`opsysstring` : | a string in the encoding of the current locale. On Windows this means the system codepage.
`len` : | the length of the string, or -1 if the string is nul-terminated[2].
`bytes_read` : | location to store the number of bytes in the input string that were successfully converted, or `NULL`. Even if the conversion was successful, this may be less than `len` if there were partial characters at the end of the input. If the error G_CONVERT_ERROR_ILLEGAL_SEQUENCE occurs, the value stored will the byte offset after the last valid input sequence.
`bytes_written` : | the number of bytes stored in the output buffer (not including the terminating nul).
`error` : | location to store the error occurring, or `NULL` to ignore errors. Any of the errors in GConvertError may occur.
Returns : | The converted string, or `NULL` on an error.

### g_filename_to_utf8 ()

    gchar *             g_filename_to_utf8                  (const gchar *opsysstring,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);

Converts a string which is in the encoding used by GLib for filenames into a UTF-8 string. Note that on Windows GLib uses UTF-8 for filenames; on other platforms, this function indirectly depends on the current locale.

`opsysstring` : | a string in the encoding for filenames
`len` : | the length of the string, or -1 if the string is nul-terminated[2].
`bytes_read` : | location to store the number of bytes in the input string that were successfully converted, or `NULL`. Even if the conversion was successful, this may be less than `len` if there were partial characters at the end of the input. If the error G_CONVERT_ERROR_ILLEGAL_SEQUENCE occurs, the value stored will the byte offset after the last valid input sequence.
`bytes_written` : | the number of bytes stored in the output buffer (not including the terminating nul).
`error` : | location to store the error occurring, or `NULL` to ignore errors. Any of the errors in GConvertError may occur.
Returns : | The converted string, or `NULL` on an error.

### g_filename_from_utf8 ()

    gchar *             g_filename_from_utf8                (const gchar *utf8string,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);

Converts a string from UTF-8 to the encoding GLib uses for filenames. Note that on Windows GLib uses UTF-8 for filenames; on other platforms, this function indirectly depends on the current locale.

`utf8string` : | a UTF-8 encoded string.
`len` : | the length of the string, or -1 if the string is nul-terminated.
`bytes_read` : | location to store the number of bytes in the input string that were successfully converted, or `NULL`. Even if the conversion was successful, this may be less than `len` if there were partial characters at the end of the input. If the error G_CONVERT_ERROR_ILLEGAL_SEQUENCE occurs, the value stored will the byte offset after the last valid input sequence. [out][allow-none]
`bytes_written` : | the number of bytes stored in the output buffer (not including the terminating nul). [out]
`error` : | location to store the error occurring, or `NULL` to ignore errors. Any of the errors in GConvertError may occur.
Returns : | The converted string, or `NULL` on an error. [array length=bytes_written][element-type guint8][transfer full]

### g_get_filename_charsets ()

    gboolean            g_get_filename_charsets             (const gchar ***charsets);

Determines the preferred character sets used for filenames. The first character set from the `charsets` is the filename encoding, the subsequent character sets are used when trying to generate a displayable representation of a filename, see `g_filename_display_name()`.

On Unix, the character sets are determined by consulting the environment variables `G_FILENAME_ENCODING` and `G_BROKEN_FILENAMES`. On Windows, the character set used in the GLib API is always UTF-8 and said environment variables have no effect.

`G_FILENAME_ENCODING` may be set to a comma-separated list of character set names. The special token "@locale" is taken to mean the character set for the current locale. If `G_FILENAME_ENCODING` is not set, but `G_BROKEN_FILENAMES` is, the character set of the current locale is taken as the filename encoding. If neither environment variable is set, UTF-8 is taken as the filename encoding, but the character set of the current locale is also put in the list of encodings.

The returned `charsets` belong to GLib and must not be freed.

Note that on Unix, regardless of the locale character set or `G_FILENAME_ENCODING` value, the actual file names present on a system might be in any random encoding or just gibberish.

`charsets` : | return location for the `NULL`-terminated list of encoding names
Returns : | `TRUE` if the filename encoding is UTF-8.

Since 2.6

### g_filename_display_name ()

    gchar *             g_filename_display_name             (const gchar *filename);

Converts a filename into a valid UTF-8 string. The conversion is not necessarily reversible, so you should keep the original around and use the return value of this function only for display purposes. Unlike `g_filename_to_utf8()`, the result is guaranteed to be non-`NULL` even if the filename actually isn't in the GLib file name encoding.

If GLib cannot make sense of the encoding of `filename`, as a last resort it replaces unknown characters with U+FFFD, the Unicode replacement character. You can search the result for the UTF-8 encoding of this character (which is "\357\277\275" in octal notation) to find out if `filename` was in an invalid encoding.

If you know the whole pathname of the file you should use `g_filename_display_basename()`, since that allows location-based translation of filenames.

`filename` : | a pathname hopefully in the GLib file name encoding
Returns : | a newly allocated string containing a rendition of the filename in valid UTF-8

Since 2.6

### g_filename_display_basename ()

    gchar *             g_filename_display_basename         (const gchar *filename);

Returns the display basename for the particular filename, guaranteed to be valid UTF-8. The display name might not be identical to the filename, for instance there might be problems converting it to UTF-8, and some files can be translated in the display.

If GLib cannot make sense of the encoding of `filename`, as a last resort it replaces unknown characters with U+FFFD, the Unicode replacement character. You can search the result for the UTF-8 encoding of this character (which is "\357\277\275" in octal notation) to find out if `filename` was in an invalid encoding.

You must pass the whole absolute pathname to this functions so that translation of well known locations can be done.

This function is preferred over `g_filename_display_name()` if you know the whole path, as it allows translation.

`filename` : | an absolute pathname in the GLib file name encoding
Returns : | a newly allocated string containing a rendition of the basename of the filename in valid UTF-8

Since 2.6

### g_locale_from_utf8 ()

    gchar *             g_locale_from_utf8                  (const gchar *utf8string,
                                                             gssize len,
                                                             gsize *bytes_read,
                                                             gsize *bytes_written,
                                                             GError **error);

Converts a string from UTF-8 to the encoding used for strings by the C runtime (usually the same as that used by the operating system) in the current locale. On Windows this means the system codepage.

`utf8string` : | a UTF-8 encoded string
`len` : | the length of the string, or -1 if the string is nul-terminated[2].
`bytes_read` : | location to store the number of bytes in the input string that were successfully converted, or `NULL`. Even if the conversion was successful, this may be less than `len` if there were partial characters at the end of the input. If the error G_CONVERT_ERROR_ILLEGAL_SEQUENCE occurs, the value stored will the byte offset after the last valid input sequence.
`bytes_written` : | the number of bytes stored in the output buffer (not including the terminating nul).
`error` : | location to store the error occurring, or `NULL` to ignore errors. Any of the errors in GConvertError may occur.
Returns : | The converted string, or `NULL` on an error.

### enum GConvertError

    typedef enum {
      G_CONVERT_ERROR_NO_CONVERSION,
      G_CONVERT_ERROR_ILLEGAL_SEQUENCE,
      G_CONVERT_ERROR_FAILED,
      G_CONVERT_ERROR_PARTIAL_INPUT,
      G_CONVERT_ERROR_BAD_URI,
      G_CONVERT_ERROR_NOT_ABSOLUTE_PATH
    } GConvertError;

Error codes returned by character set conversion routines.

`G_CONVERT_ERROR_NO_CONVERSION` | Conversion between the requested character sets is not supported.
`G_CONVERT_ERROR_ILLEGAL_SEQUENCE` | Invalid byte sequence in conversion input.
`G_CONVERT_ERROR_FAILED` | Conversion failed for some reason.
`G_CONVERT_ERROR_PARTIAL_INPUT` | Partial character sequence at end of input.
`G_CONVERT_ERROR_BAD_URI` | URI is invalid.
`G_CONVERT_ERROR_NOT_ABSOLUTE_PATH` | Pathname is not an absolute path.

### g_get_charset ()

    gboolean            g_get_charset                       (const char **charset);

Obtains the character set for the current locale; you might use this character set as an argument to `g_convert()`, to convert from the current locale's encoding to some other encoding. (Frequently `g_locale_to_utf8()` and `g_locale_from_utf8()` are nice shortcuts, though.)

On Windows the character set returned by this function is the so-called system default ANSI code-page. That is the character set used by the "narrow" versions of C library and Win32 functions that handle file names. It might be different from the character set used by the C library's current locale.

The return value is `TRUE` if the locale's encoding is UTF-8, in that case you can perhaps avoid calling `g_convert()`.

The string returned in `charset` is not allocated, and should not be freed.

`charset` : | return location for character set name
Returns : | `TRUE` if the returned charset is UTF-8

### g_get_codeset ()

    gchar *             g_get_codeset                       (void);

Gets the character set for the current locale.

Returns : | a newly allocated string containing the name of the character set. This string must be freed with `g_free()`.

[2] Note that some encodings may allow nul bytes to occur inside strings. In that case, using -1 for the `len` parameter is unsafe.

[3] Despite the fact that `byes_read` can return information about partial characters, the `g_convert_...` functions are not generally suitable for streaming. If the underlying converter being used maintains internal state, then this won't be preserved across successive calls to `g_convert()`, `g_convert_with_iconv()` or `g_convert_with_fallback()`. (An example of this is the GNU C converter for CP1255 which does not emit a base character until it knows that the next character is not a mark that could combine with the base character.)