'Decode UTF-8 with Javascript
I have Javascript in an XHTML web page that is passing UTF-8 encoded strings. It needs to continue to pass the UTF-8 version, as well as decode it. How is it possible to decode a UTF-8 string for display?
<script type="text/javascript">
// <![CDATA[
function updateUser(usernameSent){
var usernameReceived = usernameSent; // Current value: Größe
var usernameDecoded = usernameReceived; // Decode to: Größe
var html2id = '';
html2id += 'Encoded: ' + usernameReceived + '<br />Decoded: ' + usernameDecoded;
document.getElementById('userId').innerHTML = html2id;
}
// ]]>
</script>
Solution 1:[1]
To answer the original question: here is how you decode utf-8 in javascript:
http://ecmanaut.blogspot.ca/2006/07/encoding-decoding-utf8-in-javascript.html
Specifically,
function encode_utf8(s) {
return unescape(encodeURIComponent(s));
}
function decode_utf8(s) {
return decodeURIComponent(escape(s));
}
We have been using this in our production code for 6 years, and it has worked flawlessly.
Note, however, that escape() and unescape() are deprecated. See this.
Solution 2:[2]
This should work:
// http://www.onicos.com/staff/iz/amuse/javascript/expert/utf.txt
/* utf.js - UTF-8 <=> UTF-16 convertion
*
* Copyright (C) 1999 Masanao Izumo <[email protected]>
* Version: 1.0
* LastModified: Dec 25 1999
* This library is free. You can redistribute it and/or modify it.
*/
function Utf8ArrayToStr(array) {
var out, i, len, c;
var char2, char3;
out = "";
len = array.length;
i = 0;
while(i < len) {
c = array[i++];
switch(c >> 4)
{
case 0: case 1: case 2: case 3: case 4: case 5: case 6: case 7:
// 0xxxxxxx
out += String.fromCharCode(c);
break;
case 12: case 13:
// 110x xxxx 10xx xxxx
char2 = array[i++];
out += String.fromCharCode(((c & 0x1F) << 6) | (char2 & 0x3F));
break;
case 14:
// 1110 xxxx 10xx xxxx 10xx xxxx
char2 = array[i++];
char3 = array[i++];
out += String.fromCharCode(((c & 0x0F) << 12) |
((char2 & 0x3F) << 6) |
((char3 & 0x3F) << 0));
break;
}
}
return out;
}
Check out the JSFiddle demo.
Solution 3:[3]
Perhaps using the textDecoder will be sufficient.
Not supported in IE though.
var decoder = new TextDecoder('utf-8'),
decodedMessage;
decodedMessage = decoder.decode(message.data);
Handling non-UTF8 text
In this example, we decode the Russian text "??????, ???!", which means "Hello, world." In our TextDecoder() constructor, we specify the Windows-1251 character encoding, which is appropriate for Cyrillic script.
let win1251decoder = new TextDecoder('windows-1251');
let bytes = new Uint8Array([207, 240, 232, 226, 229, 242, 44, 32, 236, 232, 240, 33]);
console.log(win1251decoder.decode(bytes)); // ??????, ???!The interface for the TextDecoder is described here.
Retrieving a byte array from a string is equally simpel:
const decoder = new TextDecoder();
const encoder = new TextEncoder();
const byteArray = encoder.encode('Größe');
// converted it to a byte array
// now we can decode it back to a string if desired
console.log(decoder.decode(byteArray));If you have it in a different encoding then you must compensate for that upon encoding. The parameter in the constructor for the TextEncoder is any one of the valid encodings listed here.
Solution 4:[4]
Update @Albert's answer adding condition for emoji.
function Utf8ArrayToStr(array) {
var out, i, len, c;
var char2, char3, char4;
out = "";
len = array.length;
i = 0;
while(i < len) {
c = array[i++];
switch(c >> 4)
{
case 0: case 1: case 2: case 3: case 4: case 5: case 6: case 7:
// 0xxxxxxx
out += String.fromCharCode(c);
break;
case 12: case 13:
// 110x xxxx 10xx xxxx
char2 = array[i++];
out += String.fromCharCode(((c & 0x1F) << 6) | (char2 & 0x3F));
break;
case 14:
// 1110 xxxx 10xx xxxx 10xx xxxx
char2 = array[i++];
char3 = array[i++];
out += String.fromCharCode(((c & 0x0F) << 12) |
((char2 & 0x3F) << 6) |
((char3 & 0x3F) << 0));
break;
case 15:
// 1111 0xxx 10xx xxxx 10xx xxxx 10xx xxxx
char2 = array[i++];
char3 = array[i++];
char4 = array[i++];
out += String.fromCodePoint(((c & 0x07) << 18) | ((char2 & 0x3F) << 12) | ((char3 & 0x3F) << 6) | (char4 & 0x3F));
break;
}
return out;
}
Solution 5:[5]
Here is a solution handling all Unicode code points include upper (4 byte) values and supported by all modern browsers (IE and others > 5.5). It uses decodeURIComponent(), but NOT the deprecated escape/unescape functions:
function utf8_to_str(a) {
for(var i=0, s=''; i<a.length; i++) {
var h = a[i].toString(16)
if(h.length < 2) h = '0' + h
s += '%' + h
}
return decodeURIComponent(s)
}
Tested and available on GitHub
To create UTF-8 from a string:
function utf8_from_str(s) {
for(var i=0, enc = encodeURIComponent(s), a = []; i < enc.length;) {
if(enc[i] === '%') {
a.push(parseInt(enc.substr(i+1, 2), 16))
i += 3
} else {
a.push(enc.charCodeAt(i++))
}
}
return a
}
Tested and available on GitHub
Solution 6:[6]
@albert's solution was the closest I think but it can only parse up to 3 byte utf-8 characters
function utf8ArrayToStr(array) {
var out, i, len, c;
var char2, char3;
out = "";
len = array.length;
i = 0;
// XXX: Invalid bytes are ignored
while(i < len) {
c = array[i++];
if (c >> 7 == 0) {
// 0xxx xxxx
out += String.fromCharCode(c);
continue;
}
// Invalid starting byte
if (c >> 6 == 0x02) {
continue;
}
// #### MULTIBYTE ####
// How many bytes left for thus character?
var extraLength = null;
if (c >> 5 == 0x06) {
extraLength = 1;
} else if (c >> 4 == 0x0e) {
extraLength = 2;
} else if (c >> 3 == 0x1e) {
extraLength = 3;
} else if (c >> 2 == 0x3e) {
extraLength = 4;
} else if (c >> 1 == 0x7e) {
extraLength = 5;
} else {
continue;
}
// Do we have enough bytes in our data?
if (i+extraLength > len) {
var leftovers = array.slice(i-1);
// If there is an invalid byte in the leftovers we might want to
// continue from there.
for (; i < len; i++) if (array[i] >> 6 != 0x02) break;
if (i != len) continue;
// All leftover bytes are valid.
return {result: out, leftovers: leftovers};
}
// Remove the UTF-8 prefix from the char (res)
var mask = (1 << (8 - extraLength - 1)) - 1,
res = c & mask, nextChar, count;
for (count = 0; count < extraLength; count++) {
nextChar = array[i++];
// Is the char valid multibyte part?
if (nextChar >> 6 != 0x02) {break;};
res = (res << 6) | (nextChar & 0x3f);
}
if (count != extraLength) {
i--;
continue;
}
if (res <= 0xffff) {
out += String.fromCharCode(res);
continue;
}
res -= 0x10000;
var high = ((res >> 10) & 0x3ff) + 0xd800,
low = (res & 0x3ff) + 0xdc00;
out += String.fromCharCode(high, low);
}
return {result: out, leftovers: []};
}
This returns {result: "parsed string", leftovers: [list of invalid bytes at the end]} in case you are parsing the string in chunks.
EDIT: fixed the issue that @unhammer found.
Solution 7:[7]
// String to Utf8 ByteBuffer
function strToUTF8(str){
return Uint8Array.from(encodeURIComponent(str).replace(/%(..)/g,(m,v)=>{return String.fromCodePoint(parseInt(v,16))}), c=>c.codePointAt(0))
}
// Utf8 ByteArray to string
function UTF8toStr(ba){
return decodeURIComponent(ba.reduce((p,c)=>{return p+'%'+c.toString(16),''}))
}
Solution 8:[8]
This is what I found after a more specific Google search than just UTF-8 encode/decode. so for those who are looking for a converting library to convert between encodings, here you go.
https://github.com/inexorabletash/text-encoding
var uint8array = new TextEncoder().encode(str);
var str = new TextDecoder(encoding).decode(uint8array);
Paste from repo readme
All encodings from the Encoding specification are supported:
utf-8 ibm866 iso-8859-2 iso-8859-3 iso-8859-4 iso-8859-5 iso-8859-6 iso-8859-7 iso-8859-8 iso-8859-8-i iso-8859-10 iso-8859-13 iso-8859-14 iso-8859-15 iso-8859-16 koi8-r koi8-u macintosh windows-874 windows-1250 windows-1251 windows-1252 windows-1253 windows-1254 windows-1255 windows-1256 windows-1257 windows-1258 x-mac-cyrillic gb18030 hz-gb-2312 big5 euc-jp iso-2022-jp shift_jis euc-kr replacement utf-16be utf-16le x-user-defined
(Some encodings may be supported under other names, e.g. ascii, iso-8859-1, etc. See Encoding for additional labels for each encoding.)
Solution 9:[9]
Using my 1.6KB library, you can do
ToString(FromUTF8(Array.from(usernameReceived)))
Solution 10:[10]
You should take decodeURI for it.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/decodeURI
As simple as this:
decodeURI('https://developer.mozilla.org/ru/docs/JavaScript_%D1%88%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%BB%D1%8B');
// "https://developer.mozilla.org/ru/docs/JavaScript_?????"
Consider to use it inside try catch block for not missing an URIError.
Also it has full browsers support.
Solution 11:[11]
I reckon the easiest way would be to use a built-in js functions decodeURI() / encodeURI().
function (usernameSent) {
var usernameEncoded = usernameSent; // Current value: utf8
var usernameDecoded = decodeURI(usernameReceived); // Decoded
// do stuff
}
Solution 12:[12]
This is a solution with extensive error reporting.
It would take an UTF-8 encoded byte array (where byte array is represented as array of numbers and each number is an integer between 0 and 255 inclusive) and will produce a JavaScript string of Unicode characters.
function getNextByte(value, startByteIndex, startBitsStr,
additional, index)
{
if (index >= value.length) {
var startByte = value[startByteIndex];
throw new Error("Invalid UTF-8 sequence. Byte " + startByteIndex
+ " with value " + startByte + " (" + String.fromCharCode(startByte)
+ "; binary: " + toBinary(startByte)
+ ") starts with " + startBitsStr + " in binary and thus requires "
+ additional + " bytes after it, but we only have "
+ (value.length - startByteIndex) + ".");
}
var byteValue = value[index];
checkNextByteFormat(value, startByteIndex, startBitsStr, additional, index);
return byteValue;
}
function checkNextByteFormat(value, startByteIndex, startBitsStr,
additional, index)
{
if ((value[index] & 0xC0) != 0x80) {
var startByte = value[startByteIndex];
var wrongByte = value[index];
throw new Error("Invalid UTF-8 byte sequence. Byte " + startByteIndex
+ " with value " + startByte + " (" +String.fromCharCode(startByte)
+ "; binary: " + toBinary(startByte) + ") starts with "
+ startBitsStr + " in binary and thus requires " + additional
+ " additional bytes, each of which shouls start with 10 in binary."
+ " However byte " + (index - startByteIndex)
+ " after it with value " + wrongByte + " ("
+ String.fromCharCode(wrongByte) + "; binary: " + toBinary(wrongByte)
+") does not start with 10 in binary.");
}
}
function fromUtf8 (str) {
var value = [];
var destIndex = 0;
for (var index = 0; index < str.length; index++) {
var code = str.charCodeAt(index);
if (code <= 0x7F) {
value[destIndex++] = code;
} else if (code <= 0x7FF) {
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 6 ) & 0x1F) | 0xC0;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 0 ) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
} else if (code <= 0xFFFF) {
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 12) & 0x0F) | 0xE0;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 6 ) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 0 ) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
} else if (code <= 0x1FFFFF) {
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 18) & 0x07) | 0xF0;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 12) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 6 ) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 0 ) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
} else if (code <= 0x03FFFFFF) {
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 24) & 0x03) | 0xF0;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 18) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 12) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 6 ) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 0 ) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
} else if (code <= 0x7FFFFFFF) {
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 30) & 0x01) | 0xFC;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 24) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 18) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 12) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 6 ) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
value[destIndex++] = ((code >> 0 ) & 0x3F) | 0x80;
} else {
throw new Error("Unsupported Unicode character \""
+ str.charAt(index) + "\" with code " + code + " (binary: "
+ toBinary(code) + ") at index " + index
+ ". Cannot represent it as UTF-8 byte sequence.");
}
}
return value;
}
Solution 13:[13]
const decoder = new TextDecoder();
console.log(decoder.decode(new Uint8Array([97])));
Sources
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Source: Stack Overflow