Convert Shift_JIS format to UTF-8 format

Question

I am trying to convert a Shift_JIS formatted file into UTF-8 format. For this, below is my approach:

1. Read Shift_JIS file
2. getBytes of each line and convert it to UTF-8
3. Create new file and write UTF-8 converted value to it

Issue is that at step 2 conversion is not happening. I am using below code for converting Shift_JIS to UTF-8:

InputStream inputStream = getContentResolver().openInputStream(uri);
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream));
    byte[] b = line.getBytes("Shift_JIS");
    String value = new String(b, "UTF-8");

Please let me know if any other information is required.

I have below 2 questions:

1. Is there any other better way (steps) to do this conversion?

2. Why above code snippet is not working for conversion?

Thanks in advance!!!

Nonobservance

Answer 1

The answer @VicJordan posted is not correct. When you call getBytes(), you are getting the raw bytes of the string encoded under your system's native character encoding (which may or may not be UTF-8). Then, you are treating those bytes as if they were encoded in UTF-8, which they might not be.

A more reliable approach would be to read the Shift_JIS file into a Java String. Then, write out the Java String using UTF-8 encoding.

InputStream in = ...
Reader reader = new InputStreamReader(in, "Shift_JIS");
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
int read;
while ((read = reader.read()) != -1){
  sb.append((char)read);
}
reader.close();

String string = sb.toString();

OutputStream out = ...
Writer writer = new OutputStreamWriter(out, "UTF-8");
writer.write(string);
writer.close();

Elanorelapid

Thanks a lot. It make sense – Nonobservance

Answer 2

Finally i found the solution. Was doing some very basic mistake. Below code is working perfectly fine:

InputStream inputStream = getContentResolver().openInputStream(uri);
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream, "Shift_JIS"));
byte[] b = line.getBytes();
String value = new String(b, "UTF-8");

Nonobservance

Answer 3

If you want to copy inFile (SHift_JIS) to outFile (UTF-8).

try (Reader reader = new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(inFile), "Shift_JIS");
    Writer writer = new OutputStreamWriter(new FileOutputStream(outFile), "UTF-8")) {
    char[] buffer = new char[4096];
    int size;
    while ((size = reader.read(buffer)) >= 0)
        writer.write(buffer, 0, size);
}

Silvanus