Not able to read special character "£" using Streamreader in c#

Question

I am trying to read a character (£) from a text file, using the following code.

public static List<string> ReadAllLines(string path, bool discardEmptyLines, bool doTrim) 
{
   var retVal = new List<string>();
   if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(path) || !File.Exists(path)) {
        Comm.File.Log.LogError("ReadAllLines", string.Format("Could not load file: {0}", path));
            return retVal;
   }

   //StreamReader sr = null;
   StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(path, Encoding.Default));

   try {
     sr = File.OpenText(path);

     while (sr.Peek() >= 0) {
         var line = sr.ReadLine();

         if (discardEmptyLines && (line == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(line.Trim()))) {
            continue;
         }

         if (line != null) {
            retVal.Add(doTrim ? line.Trim() : line);
         }
      }
   } 
   catch (Exception ex) {
            Comm.File.Log.LogGeneralException("ReadAllLines", ex);
   }
   finally {
      if (sr != null) {
           sr.Close();
      }
   }

   return retVal;
}

But my code is not correctly reading £, It is reading the character as � please guide me what needs to be done to read the special character.

Thanks in advance.

Well, the file you are reading is not in Default encoding as you are opening it. You should open it with appropriate encoding, and it will work. This is a great read on the topic: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html — bosnjak, Mar 28 '14 at 14:43
Looks like an encoding issue. Probably, the file is an ANSI file, and is read like a UTF-8 file. — GolezTrol, Mar 28 '14 at 14:43
If you read a UTF-8 file as if it were ANSI, you would have two or three weird characters instead of a single one. — GolezTrol, Mar 28 '14 at 14:54

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

1

The file you are reading is not encoded the same as Encoding.Default. It is likely UTF-8. Try using UTF-8 for this particular file. For more generic usage, you should see Determining the Encoding of a text file.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

Community

1
1

answered Mar 28 '14 at 14:44

selkathguy

1,171
7
17

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 28 '14 at 14:45

0

Look like a encoding problem. Try creating your StreamReader with a UTF-8 (or Unicode) encoding instead of default.

StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(path, Encoding.UTF8));

answered Mar 28 '14 at 14:45

Francois Gingras

296
1
9

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 28 '14 at 14:47

0

Try to replace Encoding.Default with Encoding.GetEncoding(437)

answered Mar 28 '14 at 14:47

Ulugbek Umirov

12,719
3
23
31

@Sara Then can you try 1252, 37, 1140? – Ulugbek Umirov Mar 28 '14 at 15:31

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 06 '16 at 10:04

Encoding information can be provided to stream reader in 2 ways.

1)Save your file with save as option and select the appropriate encoding option from dropdown in windows. see screenshot 2)If your files are dynamic in nature use Encoding.GetEncoding() with StreamReader

Not able to read special character "£" using Streamreader in c#

4 Answers4