(PHP 4 >= 4.0.6, PHP 5, PHP 7)
mb_detect_encoding — Detect character encoding
$str
[, mixed $encoding_list = mb_detect_order()
[, bool $strict = false
]] )
Detects character encoding in string str.
strThe string being detected.
encoding_list
encoding_list is list of character
encoding. Encoding order may be specified by array or comma
separated list string.
If encoding_list is omitted,
detect_order is used.
strict
strict specifies whether to use
the strict encoding detection or not.
Default is FALSE.
The detected character encoding or FALSE if the encoding cannot be
detected from the given string.
Example #1 mb_detect_encoding() example
<?php
/* Detect character encoding with current detect_order */
echo mb_detect_encoding($str);
/* "auto" is expanded according to mbstring.language */
echo mb_detect_encoding($str, "auto");
/* Specify encoding_list character encoding by comma separated list */
echo mb_detect_encoding($str, "JIS, eucjp-win, sjis-win");
/* Use array to specify encoding_list */
$ary[] = "ASCII";
$ary[] = "JIS";
$ary[] = "EUC-JP";
echo mb_detect_encoding($str, $ary);
?>
If you try to use mb_detect_encoding to detect whether a string is valid UTF-8, use the strict mode, it is pretty worthless otherwise.
<?php
$str = 'áéóú'; // ISO-8859-1
mb_detect_encoding($str, 'UTF-8'); // 'UTF-8'
mb_detect_encoding($str, 'UTF-8', true); // false
?>
Based upon that snippet below using preg_match() I needed something faster and less specific. That function works and is brilliant but it scans the entire strings and checks that it conforms to UTF-8. I wanted something purely to check if a string contains UTF-8 characters so that I could switch character encoding from iso-8859-1 to utf-8.
I modified the pattern to only look for non-ascii multibyte sequences in the UTF-8 range and also to stop once it finds at least one multibytes string. This is quite a lot faster.
<?php
function detectUTF8($string)
{
return preg_match('%(?:
[\xC2-\xDF][\x80-\xBF] # non-overlong 2-byte
|\xE0[\xA0-\xBF][\x80-\xBF] # excluding overlongs
|[\xE1-\xEC\xEE\xEF][\x80-\xBF]{2} # straight 3-byte
|\xED[\x80-\x9F][\x80-\xBF] # excluding surrogates
|\xF0[\x90-\xBF][\x80-\xBF]{2} # planes 1-3
|[\xF1-\xF3][\x80-\xBF]{3} # planes 4-15
|\xF4[\x80-\x8F][\x80-\xBF]{2} # plane 16
)+%xs', $string);
}
?>
Beware of bug to detect Russian encodings
http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=38138
A simple way to detect UTF-8/16/32 of file by its BOM (not work with string or file without BOM)
<?php
// Unicode BOM is U+FEFF, but after encoded, it will look like this.
define ('UTF32_BIG_ENDIAN_BOM' , chr(0x00) . chr(0x00) . chr(0xFE) . chr(0xFF));
define ('UTF32_LITTLE_ENDIAN_BOM', chr(0xFF) . chr(0xFE) . chr(0x00) . chr(0x00));
define ('UTF16_BIG_ENDIAN_BOM' , chr(0xFE) . chr(0xFF));
define ('UTF16_LITTLE_ENDIAN_BOM', chr(0xFF) . chr(0xFE));
define ('UTF8_BOM' , chr(0xEF) . chr(0xBB) . chr(0xBF));
function detect_utf_encoding($filename) {
$text = file_get_contents($filename);
$first2 = substr($text, 0, 2);
$first3 = substr($text, 0, 3);
$first4 = substr($text, 0, 3);
if ($first3 == UTF8_BOM) return 'UTF-8';
elseif ($first4 == UTF32_BIG_ENDIAN_BOM) return 'UTF-32BE';
elseif ($first4 == UTF32_LITTLE_ENDIAN_BOM) return 'UTF-32LE';
elseif ($first2 == UTF16_BIG_ENDIAN_BOM) return 'UTF-16BE';
elseif ($first2 == UTF16_LITTLE_ENDIAN_BOM) return 'UTF-16LE';
}
?>
If you need to distinguish between UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1 encoding, list UTF-8 first in your encoding_list:
mb_detect_encoding($string, 'UTF-8, ISO-8859-1');
if you list ISO-8859-1 first, mb_detect_encoding() will always return ISO-8859-1.
<?php
/*
*QQ: 290359552
* conver to Utf8 if $str is not equals to 'UTF-8'
*/
function convToUtf8($str)
{
if( mb_detect_encoding($str,"UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, GBK")!="UTF-8" )
{
return iconv("gbk","utf-8",$str);
}
else
{
return $str;
}
}
?>
if the function " mb_detect_encoding" does not exist ...
... try:
<?php
// ----------------------------------------------------
if ( !function_exists('mb_detect_encoding') ) {
// ----------------------------------------------------------------
function mb_detect_encoding ($string, $enc=null, $ret=null) {
static $enclist = array(
'UTF-8', 'ASCII',
'ISO-8859-1', 'ISO-8859-2', 'ISO-8859-3', 'ISO-8859-4', 'ISO-8859-5',
'ISO-8859-6', 'ISO-8859-7', 'ISO-8859-8', 'ISO-8859-9', 'ISO-8859-10',
'ISO-8859-13', 'ISO-8859-14', 'ISO-8859-15', 'ISO-8859-16',
'Windows-1251', 'Windows-1252', 'Windows-1254',
);
$result = false;
foreach ($enclist as $item) {
$sample = iconv($item, $item, $string);
if (md5($sample) == md5($string)) {
if ($ret === NULL) { $result = $item; } else { $result = true; }
break;
}
}
return $result;
}
// ----------------------------------------------------------------
}
// ----------------------------------------------------
?>
example / usage of: mb_detect_encoding()
<?php
// ------------------------------------------------------
function str_to_utf8 ($str) {
if (mb_detect_encoding($str, 'UTF-8', true) === false) {
$str = utf8_encode($str);
}
return $str;
}
// ------------------------------------------------------
?>
$txtstr = str_to_utf8($txtstr);
a) if the FUNCTION mb_detect_encoding is not available:
### mb_detect_encoding ... iconv ###
<?php
// -------------------------------------------
if(!function_exists('mb_detect_encoding')) {
function mb_detect_encoding($string, $enc=null) {
static $list = array('utf-8', 'iso-8859-1', 'windows-1251');
foreach ($list as $item) {
$sample = iconv($item, $item, $string);
if (md5($sample) == md5($string)) {
if ($enc == $item) { return true; } else { return $item; }
}
}
return null;
}
}
// -------------------------------------------
?>
b) if the FUNCTION mb_convert_encoding is not available:
### mb_convert_encoding ... iconv ###
<?php
// -------------------------------------------
if(!function_exists('mb_convert_encoding')) {
function mb_convert_encoding($string, $target_encoding, $source_encoding) {
$string = iconv($source_encoding, $target_encoding, $string);
return $string;
}
}
// -------------------------------------------
?>
Function to detect UTF-8, when mb_detect_encoding is not available it may be useful.
<?php
function is_utf8($str) {
$c=0; $b=0;
$bits=0;
$len=strlen($str);
for($i=0; $i<$len; $i++){
$c=ord($str[$i]);
if($c > 128){
if(($c >= 254)) return false;
elseif($c >= 252) $bits=6;
elseif($c >= 248) $bits=5;
elseif($c >= 240) $bits=4;
elseif($c >= 224) $bits=3;
elseif($c >= 192) $bits=2;
else return false;
if(($i+$bits) > $len) return false;
while($bits > 1){
$i++;
$b=ord($str[$i]);
if($b < 128 || $b > 191) return false;
$bits--;
}
}
}
return true;
}
?>
// -----------------------------------------------------------
if(!function_exists('mb_detect_encoding')) {
function mb_detect_encoding($string, $enc=null, $ret=true) {
$out=$enc;
static $list = array('utf-8', 'iso-8859-1', 'iso-8859-15', 'windows-1251');
foreach ($list as $item) {
$sample = iconv($item, $item, $string);
if (md5($sample) == md5($string)) { $out = ($ret !== false) ? true : $item; }
}
return $out;
}
}
// -----------------------------------------------------------
Just a note: Instead of using the often recommended (rather complex) regular expression by W3C (http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-forms-utf-8.en.php), you can simply use the 'u' modifier to test a string for UTF-8 validity:
<?php
if (preg_match("//u", $string)) {
// $string is valid UTF-8
}
if you want to use this function ,you must loadmodule php_mbstring in the php.ini.
Another light way to detect character encoding:
<?php
function detect_encoding($string) {
static $list = array('utf-8', 'windows-1251');
foreach ($list as $item) {
$sample = iconv($item, $item, $string);
if (md5($sample) == md5($string))
return $item;
}
return null;
}
?>
I used Chris's function "detectUTF8" to detect the need from conversion from utf8 to 8859-1, which works fine. I did have a problem with the following iconv-conversion.
The problem is that the iconv-conversion to 8859-1 (with //TRANSLIT) replaces the euro-sign with EUR, although it is common practice that \x80 is used as the euro-sign in the 8859-1 charset.
I could not use 8859-15 since that mangled some other characters, so I added 2 str_replace's:
if(detectUTF8($str)){
$str=str_replace("\xE2\x82\xAC","€",$str);
$str=iconv("UTF-8","ISO-8859-1//TRANSLIT",$str);
$str=str_replace("€","\x80",$str);
}
If html-output is needed the last line is not necessary (and even unwanted).
Much simpler UTF-8-ness checker using a regular expression created by the W3C:
<?php
// Returns true if $string is valid UTF-8 and false otherwise.
function is_utf8($string) {
// From http://w3.org/International/questions/qa-forms-utf-8.html
return preg_match('%^(?:
[\x09\x0A\x0D\x20-\x7E] # ASCII
| [\xC2-\xDF][\x80-\xBF] # non-overlong 2-byte
| \xE0[\xA0-\xBF][\x80-\xBF] # excluding overlongs
| [\xE1-\xEC\xEE\xEF][\x80-\xBF]{2} # straight 3-byte
| \xED[\x80-\x9F][\x80-\xBF] # excluding surrogates
| \xF0[\x90-\xBF][\x80-\xBF]{2} # planes 1-3
| [\xF1-\xF3][\x80-\xBF]{3} # planes 4-15
| \xF4[\x80-\x8F][\x80-\xBF]{2} # plane 16
)*$%xs', $string);
} // function is_utf8
?>
Last example for verifying UTF-8 has one little bug. If 10xxxxxx byte occurs alone i.e. not in multibyte char, then it is accepted although it is against UTF-8 rules. Make following replacement to repair it.
Replace
} // goto next char
with
} else {
return false; // 10xxxxxx occuring alone
} // goto next char
I seriously underestimated the importance of setlocale...
<?php
$strings = array(
"mais coisas a pensar sobre diário ou dois!",
"plus de choses à penser à journalier ou à deux !",
"¡más cosas a pensar en diario o dos!",
"più cose da pensare circa giornaliere o due!",
"flere ting å tenke på hver dag eller to!",
"Další věcí, přemýšlet o každý den nebo dva!",
"mehr über Spaß spät schönen",
"më vonë gjatë fun bukur",
"több mint szórakozás késő csodálatos kenyér"
);
$convert = array();
setlocale(LC_CTYPE, 'de_DE.UTF-8');
foreach( $strings as $string )
$convert[] = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT//IGNORE', $string);
?>
Produces the following:
Array
(
[0] => mais coisas a pensar sobre diario ou dois!
[1] => plus de choses a penser a journalier ou a deux !
[2] => ?mas cosas a pensar en diario o dos!
[3] => piu cose da pensare circa giornaliere o due!
[4] => flere ting aa tenke paa hver dag eller to!
[5] => Dalsi veci, premyslet o kazdy den nebo dva!
[6] => mehr ueber Spass spaet schoenen
[7] => me vone gjate fun bukur
[8] => toebb mint szorakozas keso csodalatos kenyer
)
whereas
<?php
$convert = array();
setlocale(LC_CTYPE, 'nl_NL.UTF-8');
foreach( $strings as $string )
$convert[] = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT//IGNORE', $string);
?>
produces:
Array
(
[0] => mais coisas a pensar sobre di?rio ou dois!
[1] => plus de choses ? penser ? journalier ou ? deux !
[2] => ?m?s cosas a pensar en diario o dos!
[3] => pi? cose da pensare circa giornaliere o due!
[4] => flere ting ? tenke p? hver dag eller to!
[5] => Dal?? v?c?, p?em??let o ka?d? den nebo dva!
[6] => mehr ?ber Spass sp?t sch?nen
[7] => m? von? gjat? fun bukur
[8] => t?bb mint sz?rakoz?s k?s? csod?latos keny?r
)
This might be of interest when trying to convert utf-8 strings into ASCII suitable for URL's, and such. this was never obvious for me since I've used locales for us and nl.
from PHPDIG
function isUTF8($str) {
if ($str === mb_convert_encoding(mb_convert_encoding($str, "UTF-32", "UTF-8"), "UTF-8", "UTF-32")) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
Sometimes mb_detect_string is not what you need. When using pdflib for example you want to VERIFY the correctness of utf-8. mb_detect_encoding reports some iso-8859-1 encoded text as utf-8.
To verify utf 8 use the following:
//
// utf8 encoding validation developed based on Wikipedia entry at:
// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8
//
// Implemented as a recursive descent parser based on a simple state machine
// copyright 2005 Maarten Meijer
//
// This cries out for a C-implementation to be included in PHP core
//
function valid_1byte($char) {
if(!is_int($char)) return false;
return ($char & 0x80) == 0x00;
}
function valid_2byte($char) {
if(!is_int($char)) return false;
return ($char & 0xE0) == 0xC0;
}
function valid_3byte($char) {
if(!is_int($char)) return false;
return ($char & 0xF0) == 0xE0;
}
function valid_4byte($char) {
if(!is_int($char)) return false;
return ($char & 0xF8) == 0xF0;
}
function valid_nextbyte($char) {
if(!is_int($char)) return false;
return ($char & 0xC0) == 0x80;
}
function valid_utf8($string) {
$len = strlen($string);
$i = 0;
while( $i < $len ) {
$char = ord(substr($string, $i++, 1));
if(valid_1byte($char)) { // continue
continue;
} else if(valid_2byte($char)) { // check 1 byte
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
} else if(valid_3byte($char)) { // check 2 bytes
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
} else if(valid_4byte($char)) { // check 3 bytes
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
} // goto next char
}
return true; // done
}
for a drawing of the statemachine see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mjmeijer/unicode.png and http://www.xs4all.nl/~mjmeijer/unicode2.png
beware : even if you need to distinguish between UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1, and you the following detection order (as chrigu suggests)
mb_detect_encoding('accentu�e' , 'UTF-8, ISO-8859-1')
returns ISO-8859-1, while
mb_detect_encoding('accentu�' , 'UTF-8, ISO-8859-1')
returns UTF-8
bottom line : an ending '�' (and probably other accentuated chars) mislead mb_detect_encoding
