How can i open a Windows-1255 encoded file in Node.js?

E

3

7

I have a file in Windows-1255 (Hebrew) encoding, and i'd like to be able to access it in Node.js.

I tried opening the file with fs.readFile, and it gives me a Buffer that i can't do anything with. I tried setting the encoding to Windows-1255, but that wasn't recognized.

I also checked out the windows-1255 package, but i couldn't decode with that, because fs.readFile either gives a Buffer or a UTF8 string, and the package requires a 1255-encoded string.

How can i read a Windows-1255-encoded file in Node.js?

Exocrine answered 29/10, 2014 at 9:21 Comment(2)

If you don't want a natively encoded file nor a UTF8 string, what would you like to receive then? – Gaudy 29/10, 2014 at 11:0

Sorry, that was unclear. I meant i want it as a UTF8 string. See the updated question. – Exocrine 29/10, 2014 at 11:2

H

7

It seems that using the node-iconv package is the best way. Unfortunately iconv-lite which is easier to include in your code does not seem to implement transcoding for CP1255.

This thread & answer shows simple example and concisely demonstrates using both these modules.

Returning to iconv, I've had some problems installing on debian with npm prefix, and I submitted an issue to the maintainer here. I managed to workaround the issue sudo-ing the install, and the "sudo chown"-ing back to me the installed module.

I have tested various win-xxxx encodings and CodePages that have access to (Western+Eastern European samples).

But I could not make it work with CP1255 although it is listed in their supported encodings, because I do not have that specific codepage installed locally, and it gets all mangled up. I tried stealing some Hebrew script from this page, but the pasted version was always corrupted. I dared not actually install the language on my Windows machine for fear I don't brick it - sorry.

// sample.js
var Iconv = require('iconv').Iconv;
var fs = require('fs');

function decode(content) {
  var iconv = new Iconv('CP1255', 'UTF-8//TRANSLIT//IGNORE');
  var buffer = iconv.convert(content);
  return buffer.toString('utf8');
};

console.log(decode(fs.readFileSync('sample.txt')));

Extra (off topic) explanations for dealing with file encodings, and how to read files through Node.js buffers:

fs.readFile returns a buffer by default.

// force the data to be string with the second optional argument
fs.readFile(file, {encoding:'utf8'}, function(error, string) {
    console.log('raw string:', string);// autoconvert to a native string
});

OR

// use the raw return buffer and do bitwise processing on the encoded bytestream
fs.readFile(file, function(error, buffer) {
    console.log(buffer.toString('utf8'));// process the binary buffer
});

Hyoscyamus answered 18/11, 2014 at 21:40 Comment(5)

I said that i've tried that. I just get a bunch of question marks. – Exocrine 18/11, 2014 at 21:41

Oh, ignore if it does not help. See this encoding solution to non-standard node encodings using libiconv new Iconv('UTF-8', 'ISO-8859-1');//<-use your encoding here – Hyoscyamus 18/11, 2014 at 21:50

That thread looks like it might contain some helpful info. Would you like to summarize it as a new answer? – Exocrine 18/11, 2014 at 21:56

I'll try, but I do not have a text file encoded in your specific charset, so I might have to fake it. – Hyoscyamus 18/11, 2014 at 22:40

iconv-lite is supporting windows-1255. and it is very maintained lib – Phonemics 8/6, 2020 at 17:50

G

2

First off: the Windows codepage is 1255, not 1225.

Converting CP1255 to Unicode is pretty simple; after all, all data can be found on-line (I used http://www.unicode.org's table) and we're talking about a list of 256 characters at maximum. To convert a string containing "raw" bytes into proper Unicode, all one needs is to look up the correct Unicode code point for each byte interpreted as a CP1255 character.

The following quick-and-dirty Javascript will do this; as an added bonus, you can supply an optional function to process 'undefined' character codes. By default, these will be translated to U+FFFD (Unicode's native Placeholder Codepoint) but you can use the callback to convert them to anything else -- my sample inserts the original value in hexadecimal.

The output of the function is a properly Unicode-encoded string, which can be processed further into UTF8 or used as-is, depending on your needs. This, for example, is a short snippet of a web site which was encoded in Win1255, translated into Unicode and typeset in InDesign:

(Note that I forced this to read RTL, so that includes the text inside the HTML tags.)

The sample in the snippet below is some appropriate text from http://www.shmuelfomberg.com/perlhebtut/chap9.html; I inserted an \xFF near the start to demonstrate the callback function. The rest, almost all the way to the bottom, is just a large lookup table and 19 short lines of code dangling at the very bottom.

var in_text = 'çñø \xff ìðå îùäå áëì äñéôåø. äîî... òáøéú! ' +
  'ìòáåã áàðâìéú æä ðçîã, àê àðçðå áéùøàì. àðçðå øåöéí ì÷øåà, ' + 
  'ìëúåá åìòáã òáøéú! ìøåò îæìðå, äîçùá áã"ë òåáã îùîàì ìéîéï. ' +
  'ëãé ìùëðò àåúå ìòáåã îéîéï ìùîàì, ãåøù òáåãä. ëãé ìùëðò àåúå ìòáåã ' +
  'ãå-ëéååðé, æä áëìì îñåëï. àáì ÷åãí ëì àúä öøéê ëîä îåùâé éñåã.';

// Without fallback routine:
out_text = win1255ToUnicode (in_text);
alert (out_text); // just to show the string here

// With fallback routine:
out_text = win1255ToUnicode (in_text, insertHexEscape);
alert (out_text); // just to show the string here

function insertHexEscape (otherCode)
{
    return '\\x'+otherCode.charCodeAt(0).toString(16);
}

function win1255ToUnicode (source, undefHandler /* function! */)
{
/* From http://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP1255.TXT

#
#    Name:     cp1255 to Unicode table
#    Unicode version: 2.0
#    Table version: 2.01
#    Table format:  Format A
#    Date:          1/7/2000
#
#    Contact:       [email protected]
#
#    General notes: none
#
#    Format: Three tab-separated columns
#        Column #1 is the cp1255 code (in hex)
#        Column #2 is the Unicode (in hex as 0xXXXX)
#        Column #3 is the Unicode name (follows a comment sign, '#')
#
#    The entries are in cp1255 order

*/

var win1255Encoding = {
"\x00":"\u0000",    // #NULL
"\x01":"\u0001",    // #START OF HEADING
"\x02":"\u0002",    // #START OF TEXT
"\x03":"\u0003",    // #END OF TEXT
"\x04":"\u0004",    // #END OF TRANSMISSION
"\x05":"\u0005",    // #ENQUIRY
"\x06":"\u0006",    // #ACKNOWLEDGE
"\x07":"\u0007",    // #BELL
"\x08":"\u0008",    // #BACKSPACE
"\x09":"\u0009",    // #HORIZONTAL TABULATION
"\x0A":"\u000A",    // #LINE FEED
"\x0B":"\u000B",    // #VERTICAL TABULATION
"\x0C":"\u000C",    // #FORM FEED
"\x0D":"\u000D",    // #CARRIAGE RETURN
"\x0E":"\u000E",    // #SHIFT OUT
"\x0F":"\u000F",    // #SHIFT IN
"\x10":"\u0010",    // #DATA LINK ESCAPE
"\x11":"\u0011",    // #DEVICE CONTROL ONE
"\x12":"\u0012",    // #DEVICE CONTROL TWO
"\x13":"\u0013",    // #DEVICE CONTROL THREE
"\x14":"\u0014",    // #DEVICE CONTROL FOUR
"\x15":"\u0015",    // #NEGATIVE ACKNOWLEDGE
"\x16":"\u0016",    // #SYNCHRONOUS IDLE
"\x17":"\u0017",    // #END OF TRANSMISSION BLOCK
"\x18":"\u0018",    // #CANCEL
"\x19":"\u0019",    // #END OF MEDIUM
"\x1A":"\u001A",    // #SUBSTITUTE
"\x1B":"\u001B",    // #ESCAPE
"\x1C":"\u001C",    // #FILE SEPARATOR
"\x1D":"\u001D",    // #GROUP SEPARATOR
"\x1E":"\u001E",    // #RECORD SEPARATOR
"\x1F":"\u001F",    // #UNIT SEPARATOR
"\x20":"\u0020",    // #SPACE
"\x21":"\u0021",    // #EXCLAMATION MARK
"\x22":"\u0022",    // #QUOTATION MARK
"\x23":"\u0023",    // #NUMBER SIGN
"\x24":"\u0024",    // #DOLLAR SIGN
"\x25":"\u0025",    // #PERCENT SIGN
"\x26":"\u0026",    // #AMPERSAND
"\x27":"\u0027",    // #APOSTROPHE
"\x28":"\u0028",    // #LEFT PARENTHESIS
"\x29":"\u0029",    // #RIGHT PARENTHESIS
"\x2A":"\u002A",    // #ASTERISK
"\x2B":"\u002B",    // #PLUS SIGN
"\x2C":"\u002C",    // #COMMA
"\x2D":"\u002D",    // #HYPHEN-MINUS
"\x2E":"\u002E",    // #FULL STOP
"\x2F":"\u002F",    // #SOLIDUS
"\x30":"\u0030",    // #DIGIT ZERO
"\x31":"\u0031",    // #DIGIT ONE
"\x32":"\u0032",    // #DIGIT TWO
"\x33":"\u0033",    // #DIGIT THREE
"\x34":"\u0034",    // #DIGIT FOUR
"\x35":"\u0035",    // #DIGIT FIVE
"\x36":"\u0036",    // #DIGIT SIX
"\x37":"\u0037",    // #DIGIT SEVEN
"\x38":"\u0038",    // #DIGIT EIGHT
"\x39":"\u0039",    // #DIGIT NINE
"\x3A":"\u003A",    // #COLON
"\x3B":"\u003B",    // #SEMICOLON
"\x3C":"\u003C",    // #LESS-THAN SIGN
"\x3D":"\u003D",    // #EQUALS SIGN
"\x3E":"\u003E",    // #GREATER-THAN SIGN
"\x3F":"\u003F",    // #QUESTION MARK
"\x40":"\u0040",    // #COMMERCIAL AT
"\x41":"\u0041",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A
"\x42":"\u0042",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B
"\x43":"\u0043",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C
"\x44":"\u0044",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D
"\x45":"\u0045",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E
"\x46":"\u0046",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F
"\x47":"\u0047",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G
"\x48":"\u0048",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H
"\x49":"\u0049",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I
"\x4A":"\u004A",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER J
"\x4B":"\u004B",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K
"\x4C":"\u004C",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L
"\x4D":"\u004D",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M
"\x4E":"\u004E",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N
"\x4F":"\u004F",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O
"\x50":"\u0050",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P
"\x51":"\u0051",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q
"\x52":"\u0052",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R
"\x53":"\u0053",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S
"\x54":"\u0054",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T
"\x55":"\u0055",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U
"\x56":"\u0056",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER V
"\x57":"\u0057",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W
"\x58":"\u0058",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X
"\x59":"\u0059",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y
"\x5A":"\u005A",    // #LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z
"\x5B":"\u005B",    // #LEFT SQUARE BRACKET
"\x5C":"\u005C",    // #REVERSE SOLIDUS
"\x5D":"\u005D",    // #RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET
"\x5E":"\u005E",    // #CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT
"\x5F":"\u005F",    // #LOW LINE
"\x60":"\u0060",    // #GRAVE ACCENT
"\x61":"\u0061",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER A
"\x62":"\u0062",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER B
"\x63":"\u0063",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER C
"\x64":"\u0064",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER D
"\x65":"\u0065",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER E
"\x66":"\u0066",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER F
"\x67":"\u0067",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER G
"\x68":"\u0068",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER H
"\x69":"\u0069",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER I
"\x6A":"\u006A",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER J
"\x6B":"\u006B",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER K
"\x6C":"\u006C",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER L
"\x6D":"\u006D",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER M
"\x6E":"\u006E",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER N
"\x6F":"\u006F",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER O
"\x70":"\u0070",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER P
"\x71":"\u0071",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER Q
"\x72":"\u0072",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER R
"\x73":"\u0073",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER S
"\x74":"\u0074",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER T
"\x75":"\u0075",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER U
"\x76":"\u0076",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER V
"\x77":"\u0077",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER W
"\x78":"\u0078",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER X
"\x79":"\u0079",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER Y
"\x7A":"\u007A",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER Z
"\x7B":"\u007B",    // #LEFT CURLY BRACKET
"\x7C":"\u007C",    // #VERTICAL LINE
"\x7D":"\u007D",    // #RIGHT CURLY BRACKET
"\x7E":"\u007E",    // #TILDE
"\x7F":"\u007F",    // #DELETE
"\x80":"\u20AC",    // #EURO SIGN
"\x82":"\u201A",    // #SINGLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK
"\x83":"\u0192",    // #LATIN SMALL LETTER F WITH HOOK
"\x84":"\u201E",    // #DOUBLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK
"\x85":"\u2026",    // #HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS
"\x86":"\u2020",    // #DAGGER
"\x87":"\u2021",    // #DOUBLE DAGGER
"\x88":"\u02C6",    // #MODIFIER LETTER CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT
"\x89":"\u2030",    // #PER MILLE SIGN
"\x8B":"\u2039",    // #SINGLE LEFT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
"\x91":"\u2018",    // #LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
"\x92":"\u2019",    // #RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
"\x93":"\u201C",    // #LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
"\x94":"\u201D",    // #RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
"\x95":"\u2022",    // #BULLET
"\x96":"\u2013",    // #EN DASH
"\x97":"\u2014",    // #EM DASH
"\x98":"\u02DC",    // #SMALL TILDE
"\x99":"\u2122",    // #TRADE MARK SIGN
"\x9B":"\u203A",    // #SINGLE RIGHT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
"\xA0":"\u00A0",    // #NO-BREAK SPACE
"\xA1":"\u00A1",    // #INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK
"\xA2":"\u00A2",    // #CENT SIGN
"\xA3":"\u00A3",    // #POUND SIGN
"\xA4":"\u20AA",    // #NEW SHEQEL SIGN
"\xA5":"\u00A5",    // #YEN SIGN
"\xA6":"\u00A6",    // #BROKEN BAR
"\xA7":"\u00A7",    // #SECTION SIGN
"\xA8":"\u00A8",    // #DIAERESIS
"\xA9":"\u00A9",    // #COPYRIGHT SIGN
"\xAA":"\u00D7",    // #MULTIPLICATION SIGN
"\xAB":"\u00AB",    // #LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
"\xAC":"\u00AC",    // #NOT SIGN
"\xAD":"\u00AD",    // #SOFT HYPHEN
"\xAE":"\u00AE",    // #REGISTERED SIGN
"\xAF":"\u00AF",    // #MACRON
"\xB0":"\u00B0",    // #DEGREE SIGN
"\xB1":"\u00B1",    // #PLUS-MINUS SIGN
"\xB2":"\u00B2",    // #SUPERSCRIPT TWO
"\xB3":"\u00B3",    // #SUPERSCRIPT THREE
"\xB4":"\u00B4",    // #ACUTE ACCENT
"\xB5":"\u00B5",    // #MICRO SIGN
"\xB6":"\u00B6",    // #PILCROW SIGN
"\xB7":"\u00B7",    // #MIDDLE DOT
"\xB8":"\u00B8",    // #CEDILLA
"\xB9":"\u00B9",    // #SUPERSCRIPT ONE
"\xBA":"\u00F7",    // #DIVISION SIGN
"\xBB":"\u00BB",    // #RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
"\xBC":"\u00BC",    // #VULGAR FRACTION ONE QUARTER
"\xBD":"\u00BD",    // #VULGAR FRACTION ONE HALF
"\xBE":"\u00BE",    // #VULGAR FRACTION THREE QUARTERS
"\xBF":"\u00BF",    // #INVERTED QUESTION MARK
"\xC0":"\u05B0",    // #HEBREW POINT SHEVA
"\xC1":"\u05B1",    // #HEBREW POINT HATAF SEGOL
"\xC2":"\u05B2",    // #HEBREW POINT HATAF PATAH
"\xC3":"\u05B3",    // #HEBREW POINT HATAF QAMATS
"\xC4":"\u05B4",    // #HEBREW POINT HIRIQ
"\xC5":"\u05B5",    // #HEBREW POINT TSERE
"\xC6":"\u05B6",    // #HEBREW POINT SEGOL
"\xC7":"\u05B7",    // #HEBREW POINT PATAH
"\xC8":"\u05B8",    // #HEBREW POINT QAMATS
"\xC9":"\u05B9",    // #HEBREW POINT HOLAM
"\xCB":"\u05BB",    // #HEBREW POINT QUBUTS
"\xCC":"\u05BC",    // #HEBREW POINT DAGESH OR MAPIQ
"\xCD":"\u05BD",    // #HEBREW POINT METEG
"\xCE":"\u05BE",    // #HEBREW PUNCTUATION MAQAF
"\xCF":"\u05BF",    // #HEBREW POINT RAFE
"\xD0":"\u05C0",    // #HEBREW PUNCTUATION PASEQ
"\xD1":"\u05C1",    // #HEBREW POINT SHIN DOT
"\xD2":"\u05C2",    // #HEBREW POINT SIN DOT
"\xD3":"\u05C3",    // #HEBREW PUNCTUATION SOF PASUQ
"\xD4":"\u05F0",    // #HEBREW LIGATURE YIDDISH DOUBLE VAV
"\xD5":"\u05F1",    // #HEBREW LIGATURE YIDDISH VAV YOD
"\xD6":"\u05F2",    // #HEBREW LIGATURE YIDDISH DOUBLE YOD
"\xD7":"\u05F3",    // #HEBREW PUNCTUATION GERESH
"\xD8":"\u05F4",    // #HEBREW PUNCTUATION GERSHAYIM
"\xE0":"\u05D0",    // #HEBREW LETTER ALEF
"\xE1":"\u05D1",    // #HEBREW LETTER BET
"\xE2":"\u05D2",    // #HEBREW LETTER GIMEL
"\xE3":"\u05D3",    // #HEBREW LETTER DALET
"\xE4":"\u05D4",    // #HEBREW LETTER HE
"\xE5":"\u05D5",    // #HEBREW LETTER VAV
"\xE6":"\u05D6",    // #HEBREW LETTER ZAYIN
"\xE7":"\u05D7",    // #HEBREW LETTER HET
"\xE8":"\u05D8",    // #HEBREW LETTER TET
"\xE9":"\u05D9",    // #HEBREW LETTER YOD
"\xEA":"\u05DA",    // #HEBREW LETTER FINAL KAF
"\xEB":"\u05DB",    // #HEBREW LETTER KAF
"\xEC":"\u05DC",    // #HEBREW LETTER LAMED
"\xED":"\u05DD",    // #HEBREW LETTER FINAL MEM
"\xEE":"\u05DE",    // #HEBREW LETTER MEM
"\xEF":"\u05DF",    // #HEBREW LETTER FINAL NUN
"\xF0":"\u05E0",    // #HEBREW LETTER NUN
"\xF1":"\u05E1",    // #HEBREW LETTER SAMEKH
"\xF2":"\u05E2",    // #HEBREW LETTER AYIN
"\xF3":"\u05E3",    // #HEBREW LETTER FINAL PE
"\xF4":"\u05E4",    // #HEBREW LETTER PE
"\xF5":"\u05E5",    // #HEBREW LETTER FINAL TSADI
"\xF6":"\u05E6",    // #HEBREW LETTER TSADI
"\xF7":"\u05E7",    // #HEBREW LETTER QOF
"\xF8":"\u05E8",    // #HEBREW LETTER RESH
"\xF9":"\u05E9",    // #HEBREW LETTER SHIN
"\xFA":"\u05EA",    // #HEBREW LETTER TAV
"\xFD":"\u200E",    // #LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK
"\xFE":"\u200F"     // #RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK
}, i=0,l,dest = '';

    l = source.length;
    while (l--)
    {
        if (win1255Encoding[source[i]])
            dest += win1255Encoding[source[i]];
        else
        {
            if (undefHandler)
            {
                dest += undefHandler (source[i]);
            } else
            {
                dest += '\uFFFD';
            }
        }
        i++;
    }
    return dest;
}

Gaudy answered 30/10, 2014 at 23:52 Comment(8)

Thanks for the answer. I'm not able to test it right now, but i'll get back to you when i can. – Exocrine 31/10, 2014 at 14:10

This works for converting text if i already have it in the proper formatting, but here my problem is opening it at all. – Exocrine 6/11, 2014 at 11:14

@Scimonster: how are you having problems opening a file then? – Gaudy 6/11, 2014 at 11:18

When i do fs.readFile() on the Windows-1255-encoded file, it just gives me a bunch of question marks. – Exocrine 6/11, 2014 at 11:20

Hm.. Can you post a sample file online and give a link to it? It may very well be your console (or other output device) cannot represent the characters. – Gaudy 6/11, 2014 at 11:21

Here is one of them. (That's not my site - they provide a download of the entire site, and i'm running it on that.) I've written both to the console, and a file (UTF8 encoded, after running your decoder), and just get the question marks. – Exocrine 6/11, 2014 at 11:23

I don't know what to say--that file works for me, see the image I added. – Gaudy 6/11, 2014 at 14:4

How did you open the file? I just used fs.readFile('fileName', function(err, data){console.log(data.toString())}). I tried various encodings as well... – Exocrine 6/11, 2014 at 14:18

G

0

This way it worked for me:

const fs = require('fs');
var Iconv = require('iconv').Iconv;
var iconv = new Iconv('cp1251', 'utf-8');
const encoded = fs.readFileSync('sample.txt');
const decoded = iconv.convert(encoded).toString();

Greatly answered 16/12, 2023 at 21:32 Comment(0)

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