±encoding, ±e

File encoding of the input or output CSV file

Description

Set the assumed encoding for reading a CSV file.
Set the encoding for writing a CSV file.

The default encoding, if there is no deviating information, depends on the existing installation locale. This can be changed temporarily with the %locale command.

The encoding name can be given uppercase or lowercase.
Moreover, there are some aliases for convenience. UTF-8 , UTF-16 , and UTF-32 can also be written as UTF8 , UTF16 , and UTF32 .
UTF16 and UTF-16LE are synonyms, as well as UTF-32 and UTF-32LE .

Alternatively a codepage can be denoted, prepended with a 'CP-' (like -encoding=CP-10021, which is the same as -encoding=X-MAC-THAI).

All available encodings can be displayed using the following command:
csvfox %help=allencodings .

About UTF-8 encoding and the BOM (Byte Order Mark)

For general UTF-8-encoded files, ±encoding=UTF-8 or ±encoding=UTF8 are valid for an UTF-8 encoding without BOM.

If UTF-8 with BOM is needed (e.g., for easier import into a certain spreadsheet software), either ±encoding=UTF-8-BOM or ±encoding=UTF8-BOM can be used instead.

Pattern

±e=encoding ±encoding=encoding

Usage Examples

csvfox infile.csv +e=UTF-8 (...): Assumes that the CSV file to read has UTF-8 encoding.
csvfox infile.csv -e=Windows-1252 outfile.csv: Reads infile.csv (in default encoding) and writes it into outfile.csv, using Windows-1252 encoding for writing.