strange codes in text, like +ADs-, +AGA-, or +ACoAKg- and +ACEAIQ-

Question

i got a dataset that uses a strange encoding for non-printables / diacritics. i'm getting hte impression that it's an artifact of some mail system. or maybe it's excel or something? anyway, the stuff i get looks like this:

+ADs-, +AGA-, or +ACoAKg- and +ACEAIQ-

there's more.... any idea what that this and where it comes from? google shows me stuff from mailing lists etc - but theys just look like mangeled mail, nothing discussing the codes themselve.

Interestingly, Excel seems to know what to do with them. Might be something like quoted printable... just different :) any idea?

Answer 1

It looks like UTF-7 encoding. See wikipedia's entry for the gory detail, also RFC2152 for more gory details (including a few more examples).

Answer 2

to answer my own question: it's UTF-7. duh. thanks bryan.

case closed :)