Can php convert strings with all charset encodes to utf8

Question

Hi,

Can php convert strings with all charset encodes to utf8?

Solutions that don't works:

1. utf8_encode($string) - but its only Encodes an ISO-8859-1 string to UTF-8?
2. iconv($incharset, $outcharset,$text) - but how can be find string current encodding? (only can be if string part of html dom document, not just string)

thanks

Answer 1

In general, you cannot know the encoding a given string using.

All you can do is guess. There's mb_detect_encoding, which doesn't really work well and then there are more complex heuristics, such as those used by browsers, which employ language cues.

Answer 2

It is possible to convert a string from any encoding supported by iconv() into UTF-8 in PHP.

but how can be find string current encodding?

You should never need to "find" the current encoding: Your script should always know what it is. Any resource you query, if properly encoded, will give you its encoding in the content-type header or through other means.

As Artefacto says, there is the possibility of using mb_detect_encoding() but this is not a reliable method. The data flow of the program should always have it defined what encoding a string is in (and preferably work with UTF-8 internally) - that's the way to go.