Reading text files without specifying the encoding?

Question

I have looked everywhere for a solution, but I can't find one. The problem is that I'm using codes that everybody is using, but for some reason, my codes aren't working.
I want to be able to open up text files in Java without having to specify the encoding for the files that I'm going read, because I have no idea which encoding they will use.
But even when specifying UTF-8 to be encoding of the file to read, it doesn't work correctly:
FileInputStream fileIS= new FileInputStream("somefile.txt");
Reader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fileIS, Charset.forName("UTF-8")));
EVERYWHERE I look, ppl are using these codes! But it doesn't work, some characters (such as the Euro sign) are displayed as squares.
However, I want to be able to read not only UTF-8 files but anything that Java supports. Any ideas?
Edited by: Stalfos on Oct 22, 2007 12:22 PM

Answer 1

Stalfos wrote:
I want to be able to open up text files in Java without having to specify the encoding for the files that I'm going read, because I have no idea which encoding they will use.
This is your problem. If you don't know what encoding the text is stored in, then the chances that the default encoding used to read it will be correct are slim.
But even when specifying UTF-8 to be encoding of the file to read, it doesn't work correctly:There are many different character encodings, and most of them don't overlap. Anything above 127 usually causes problems.
FileInputStream fileIS= new FileInputStream("somefile.txt");
Reader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fileIS, Charset.forName("UTF-8")));
EVERYWHERE I look, ppl are using these codes! But it doesn't work, some characters (such as the Euro sign) are displayed as squares.The problem isn't with the code, it's that the file you're reading isn't using an encoding that's compatible with UTF-8. Assuming that using UTF-8 should work for all encodings is like assuming that someone who can read Chinese should be able to read a book written in Spanish or Greek. It doesn't work that way.
However, I want to be able to read not only UTF-8 files but anything that Java supports. Any ideas?You need to know what encoding your files are stored in, period. There are a few ways to guess what the encoding is, but they're only reliable for a small set of encodings.
You don't seem to truly understand what character encodings are, or how to use them, so read this:
The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html