reading text file with utf-8 encoding using java

Question

I have problem in reading text file with utf-8 encoding I'm using java with netbeans 7.2.1 platform

I already configured the java project to handle UTF-8 javaproject==>right click==>properties==>source==>UTF-8

but still get the unknown character output: ��

the code:

File fileDirs = new File("C:\\file.txt");

BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(fileDirs), "UTF-8"));

String str;

while ((str = in.readLine()) != null) {
    System.out.println(str);
}

any other ideas?

thanks

What is the encoding of `System.out`? What's your system encoding? — Mike Samuel, Feb 17 '13 at 05:13
thank you all for your comments. I found the solution to the problem.the text file was with ANSI encoding with arabic character. so to solve : BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(fileDirs), "windows-1256"));--thanks all — Abrial, Feb 17 '13 at 12:40

score 43 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 15 '16 at 09:19

Use

    import java.io.BufferedReader;
    import java.io.File;
    import java.io.FileInputStream;
    import java.io.IOException;
    import java.io.InputStreamReader;
    import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;     
    public class test {
    public static void main(String[] args){

    try {
        File fileDir = new File("PATH_TO_FILE");

        BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
           new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(fileDir), "UTF-8"));

        String str;

        while ((str = in.readLine()) != null) {
            System.out.println(str);
        }

                in.close();
        } 
        catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) 
        {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        } 
        catch (IOException e) 
        {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}

You need to put UTF-8 in quotes

Bad practice to put in.close before the catch. Should be in a finally block. Also can use multi catch format in Java 8 — tgkprog, May 22 '17 at 19:25

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 29 '15 at 18:47

12

You need to specify the encoding of the InputStreamReader using the Charset parameter.

Charset inputCharset = Charset.forName("ISO-8859-1");
InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(fis, inputCharset));

This is work for me. i hope to help you.

answered Aug 29 '15 at 18:47

jinkal

1,622
16
21

You are the champ! Thanks, brother :) – Martin Pfeffer Oct 27 '15 at 21:17
Lg g3 = work with utf-8 but not ISO-8859-1, and my ASUS = works with ISO-8859-1 but not in utf-8 ... – Jan 18 '16 at 10:04

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 17 '13 at 05:17

10

You are reading the file right but the problem seems to be with the default encoding of System.out. Try this to print the UTF-8 string-

PrintStream out = new PrintStream(System.out, true, "UTF-8");
out.println(str);

answered Feb 17 '13 at 05:17

MoveFast

3,011
2
27
53

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 02 '18 at 14:39

4

I ran into the same problem every time it finds a special character marks it as ��. to solve this, I tried using the encoding: ISO-8859-1

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream("txtPath"),"ISO-8859-1"));

while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {

}

I hope this can help anyone who sees this post.

answered Mar 02 '18 at 14:39

Joshua Joel Cleveland

488
5
11

There's no *ISO-8859-1* encoding set in the code. The encoding is the default – fantaghirocco Jan 03 '21 at 09:18

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 14 '18 at 11:49

Ok, I am definitively late to the party but if you are still looking for an optimal solution I would use the following ( for Java 8 )

    Charset inputCharset = Charset.forName("ISO-8859-1");
    Path pathToFile = ....
    try (BufferedReader br = Files.newBufferedReader( pathToFile, inputCharset )) {
        ...
     }

reading text file with utf-8 encoding using java

5 Answers5

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