Encoding
Specifies character format of a text file
Syntax
`
Open filename for {Input|Output|Append} Encoding "utf-8"|"utf-16"|"utf-32"|"ascii" as [#]filenum
`
Parameters
`filename` for {Input|Output|Append}
file name to open for `Input`, `Output`, or `Append`
`Encoding "utf-8"|"utf-16"|"utf-32"|"ascii"`
indicates encoding type for the file
`filenum`
unused file number to associate with the open file
Description
`Encoding` specifies the format for an Unicode text file, so `Winput #` and `Print #` use the correct encoding. If omitted from an `Open` statement, "ascii" encoding is the default.
Only little endian character encodings are supported at the moment.

- "utf8",
- "utf16"
- "utf32"
- "ascii" (the default)

Example
`
'' This example will:
'' 1) Write a string to a text file with utf-16 encoding
'' 2) Display the byte contents of the file
'' 3) Read the text back from the file
''
'' WSTRING's will work as well but STRING has been
'' used in this example since not all consoles support
'' printing WSTRING's.
'' The name of the file to use in this example
Dim f As String
f = "sample.txt"
''
Scope
Dim s As String
s = "FreeBASIC"
Print "Text to write to " + f + ":"
Print s
Print
'' open a file for output using utf-16 encoding
'' and print a short message
Open f For Output Encoding "utf-16" As #1
'' The ascii string is converted to utf-16
Print #1, s
Close #1
End Scope
''
Scope
Dim s As String, n As Integer
'' open the same file for binary and read all the bytes
Open f For Binary As #1
n = LOF(1)
s = Space( n )
Get #1,,s
Close #1
Print "Binary contents of " + f + ":"
For i As Integer = 1 To n
Print Hex( Asc( Mid( s, i, 1 )), 2); " ";
Next
Print
Print
End Scope
''
Scope
Dim s As String
'' open a file for input using utf-16 encoding
'' and read back the message
Open f For Input Encoding "utf-16" As #1
'' The ascii string is converted from utf-16
Line Input #1, s
Close #1
'' Display the text
Print "Text read from " + f + ":"
Print s
Print
End Scope
`
Output:

    Text to write to sample.txt:
    FreeBASIC

    Binary contents of sample.txt:
    FF FE 46 00 72 00 65 00 65 00 42 00 41 00 53 00 49 00 43 00 0D 00 0A 00

    Text read from sample.txt:
    FreeBASIC

Platform Differences

- Unicode (w)strings are not supported in the DOS port of FreeBASIC

Dialect Differences

- Not available in the -lang qb dialect unless referenced with the alias `__Encoding`.

Differences from QB

- QB had no support for Unicode

See also

- `Open`