If you try to use mb_detect_encoding to detect whether a string is valid UTF-8, use the strict mode, it is pretty worthless otherwise.
<?php
$str = 'áéóú'; // ISO-8859-1
mb_detect_encoding($str, 'UTF-8'); // 'UTF-8'
mb_detect_encoding($str, 'UTF-8', true); // false
?>
mb_detect_encoding
(PHP 4 >= 4.0.6, PHP 5, PHP 7)
mb_detect_encoding — Detect character encoding
Descrierea
mb_detect_encoding
( string
$string
, array|string|null $encodings = null
, bool $strict = false
) : string|false
Detects character encoding in string string.
Parametri
-
string -
The string being detected.
-
encodings -
encodingsis list of character encoding. Encoding order may be specified by array or comma separated list string.If
encodingsis omitted ornull, detect_order is used. -
strict -
strictspecifies whether to use the strict encoding detection or not. Default isfalse.
Valorile întoarse
The detected character encoding or false if the encoding cannot be
detected from the given string.
Exemple
Example #1 mb_detect_encoding() example
<?php
/* Detect character encoding with current detect_order */
echo mb_detect_encoding($str);
/* "auto" is expanded according to mbstring.language */
echo mb_detect_encoding($str, "auto");
/* Specify "encodings" parameter by list separated by comma */
echo mb_detect_encoding($str, "JIS, eucjp-win, sjis-win");
/* Use array to specify "encodings" parameter */
$ary[] = "ASCII";
$ary[] = "JIS";
$ary[] = "EUC-JP";
echo mb_detect_encoding($str, $ary);
?>
add a note
User Contributed Notes 26 notes
Gerg Tisza ¶
13 years ago
mta59066 at gmail dot com ¶
2 years ago
The documentation is no longer correct for php8.1 and mb_detect_encoding no longer supports order of encodings. The example outputs given in the documentation are also no longer correct for php8.1. This is somewhat explained here https://github.com/php/php-src/issues/8279
I understand the previous ambiguity in these functions, but in my option 8.1 should have deprecated mb_detect_encoding and mb_detect_order and came up with different functions. It now tries to find the encoding that will use the least amount of space regardless of the order, and I am not sure who needs that.
Below is an example function that will do what mb_detect_encoding was doing prior to the 8.1 change.
<?php
function mb_detect_enconding_in_order(string $string, array $encodings): string|false
{
foreach($encodings as $enc) {
if (mb_check_encoding($string, $enc)) {
return $enc;
}
}
return false;
}
?>
geompse at gmail dot com ¶
2 years ago
Major undocumented breaking change since 8.1.7
https://3v4l.org/BLjZ3
Make sure to replace mb_detect_encoding with a loop of calls to mb_check_encoding
Chrigu ¶
19 years ago
If you need to distinguish between UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1 encoding, list UTF-8 first in your encoding_list:
mb_detect_encoding($string, 'UTF-8, ISO-8859-1');
if you list ISO-8859-1 first, mb_detect_encoding() will always return ISO-8859-1.
dennis at nikolaenko dot ru ¶
16 years ago
Beware of bug to detect Russian encodings
http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=38138
rl at itfigures dot nl ¶
17 years ago
I used Chris's function "detectUTF8" to detect the need from conversion from utf8 to 8859-1, which works fine. I did have a problem with the following iconv-conversion.
The problem is that the iconv-conversion to 8859-1 (with //TRANSLIT) replaces the euro-sign with EUR, although it is common practice that \x80 is used as the euro-sign in the 8859-1 charset.
I could not use 8859-15 since that mangled some other characters, so I added 2 str_replace's:
if(detectUTF8($str)){
$str=str_replace("\xE2\x82\xAC","€",$str);
$str=iconv("UTF-8","ISO-8859-1//TRANSLIT",$str);
$str=str_replace("€","\x80",$str);
}
If html-output is needed the last line is not necessary (and even unwanted).
chris AT w3style.co DOT uk ¶
18 years ago
Based upon that snippet below using preg_match() I needed something faster and less specific. That function works and is brilliant but it scans the entire strings and checks that it conforms to UTF-8. I wanted something purely to check if a string contains UTF-8 characters so that I could switch character encoding from iso-8859-1 to utf-8.
I modified the pattern to only look for non-ascii multibyte sequences in the UTF-8 range and also to stop once it finds at least one multibytes string. This is quite a lot faster.
<?php
function detectUTF8($string)
{
return preg_match('%(?:
[\xC2-\xDF][\x80-\xBF] # non-overlong 2-byte
|\xE0[\xA0-\xBF][\x80-\xBF] # excluding overlongs
|[\xE1-\xEC\xEE\xEF][\x80-\xBF]{2} # straight 3-byte
|\xED[\x80-\x9F][\x80-\xBF] # excluding surrogates
|\xF0[\x90-\xBF][\x80-\xBF]{2} # planes 1-3
|[\xF1-\xF3][\x80-\xBF]{3} # planes 4-15
|\xF4[\x80-\x8F][\x80-\xBF]{2} # plane 16
)+%xs', $string);
}
?>
nat3738 at gmail dot com ¶
15 years ago
A simple way to detect UTF-8/16/32 of file by its BOM (not work with string or file without BOM)
<?php
// Unicode BOM is U+FEFF, but after encoded, it will look like this.
define ('UTF32_BIG_ENDIAN_BOM' , chr(0x00) . chr(0x00) . chr(0xFE) . chr(0xFF));
define ('UTF32_LITTLE_ENDIAN_BOM', chr(0xFF) . chr(0xFE) . chr(0x00) . chr(0x00));
define ('UTF16_BIG_ENDIAN_BOM' , chr(0xFE) . chr(0xFF));
define ('UTF16_LITTLE_ENDIAN_BOM', chr(0xFF) . chr(0xFE));
define ('UTF8_BOM' , chr(0xEF) . chr(0xBB) . chr(0xBF));
function detect_utf_encoding($filename) {
$text = file_get_contents($filename);
$first2 = substr($text, 0, 2);
$first3 = substr($text, 0, 3);
$first4 = substr($text, 0, 3);
if ($first3 == UTF8_BOM) return 'UTF-8';
elseif ($first4 == UTF32_BIG_ENDIAN_BOM) return 'UTF-32BE';
elseif ($first4 == UTF32_LITTLE_ENDIAN_BOM) return 'UTF-32LE';
elseif ($first2 == UTF16_BIG_ENDIAN_BOM) return 'UTF-16BE';
elseif ($first2 == UTF16_LITTLE_ENDIAN_BOM) return 'UTF-16LE';
}
?>
eyecatchup at gmail dot com ¶
11 years ago
Just a note: Instead of using the often recommended (rather complex) regular expression by W3C (http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-forms-utf-8.en.php), you can simply use the 'u' modifier to test a string for UTF-8 validity:
<?php
if (preg_match("//u", $string)) {
// $string is valid UTF-8
}
hmdker at gmail dot com ¶
16 years ago
Function to detect UTF-8, when mb_detect_encoding is not available it may be useful.
<?php
function is_utf8($str) {
$c=0; $b=0;
$bits=0;
$len=strlen($str);
for($i=0; $i<$len; $i++){
$c=ord($str[$i]);
if($c > 128){
if(($c >= 254)) return false;
elseif($c >= 252) $bits=6;
elseif($c >= 248) $bits=5;
elseif($c >= 240) $bits=4;
elseif($c >= 224) $bits=3;
elseif($c >= 192) $bits=2;
else return false;
if(($i+$bits) > $len) return false;
while($bits > 1){
$i++;
$b=ord($str[$i]);
if($b < 128 || $b > 191) return false;
$bits--;
}
}
}
return true;
}
?>
garbage at iglou dot eu ¶
7 years ago
For detect UTF-8, you can use:
if (preg_match('!!u', $str)) { echo 'utf-8'; }
- Norihiori
php-note-2005 at ryandesign dot com ¶
19 years ago
Much simpler UTF-8-ness checker using a regular expression created by the W3C:
<?php
// Returns true if $string is valid UTF-8 and false otherwise.
function is_utf8($string) {
// From http://w3.org/International/questions/qa-forms-utf-8.html
return preg_match('%^(?:
[\x09\x0A\x0D\x20-\x7E] # ASCII
| [\xC2-\xDF][\x80-\xBF] # non-overlong 2-byte
| \xE0[\xA0-\xBF][\x80-\xBF] # excluding overlongs
| [\xE1-\xEC\xEE\xEF][\x80-\xBF]{2} # straight 3-byte
| \xED[\x80-\x9F][\x80-\xBF] # excluding surrogates
| \xF0[\x90-\xBF][\x80-\xBF]{2} # planes 1-3
| [\xF1-\xF3][\x80-\xBF]{3} # planes 4-15
| \xF4[\x80-\x8F][\x80-\xBF]{2} # plane 16
)*$%xs', $string);
} // function is_utf8
?>
bmrkbyet at web dot de ¶
11 years ago
a) if the FUNCTION mb_detect_encoding is not available:
### mb_detect_encoding ... iconv ###
<?php
// -------------------------------------------
if(!function_exists('mb_detect_encoding')) {
function mb_detect_encoding($string, $enc=null) {
static $list = array('utf-8', 'iso-8859-1', 'windows-1251');
foreach ($list as $item) {
$sample = iconv($item, $item, $string);
if (md5($sample) == md5($string)) {
if ($enc == $item) { return true; } else { return $item; }
}
}
return null;
}
}
// -------------------------------------------
?>
b) if the FUNCTION mb_convert_encoding is not available:
### mb_convert_encoding ... iconv ###
<?php
// -------------------------------------------
if(!function_exists('mb_convert_encoding')) {
function mb_convert_encoding($string, $target_encoding, $source_encoding) {
$string = iconv($source_encoding, $target_encoding, $string);
return $string;
}
}
// -------------------------------------------
?>
emoebel at web dot de ¶
10 years ago
if the function " mb_detect_encoding" does not exist ...
... try:
<?php
// ----------------------------------------------------
if ( !function_exists('mb_detect_encoding') ) {
// ----------------------------------------------------------------
function mb_detect_encoding ($string, $enc=null, $ret=null) {
static $enclist = array(
'UTF-8', 'ASCII',
'ISO-8859-1', 'ISO-8859-2', 'ISO-8859-3', 'ISO-8859-4', 'ISO-8859-5',
'ISO-8859-6', 'ISO-8859-7', 'ISO-8859-8', 'ISO-8859-9', 'ISO-8859-10',
'ISO-8859-13', 'ISO-8859-14', 'ISO-8859-15', 'ISO-8859-16',
'Windows-1251', 'Windows-1252', 'Windows-1254',
);
$result = false;
foreach ($enclist as $item) {
$sample = iconv($item, $item, $string);
if (md5($sample) == md5($string)) {
if ($ret === NULL) { $result = $item; } else { $result = true; }
break;
}
}
return $result;
}
// ----------------------------------------------------------------
}
// ----------------------------------------------------
?>
example / usage of: mb_detect_encoding()
<?php
// ------------------------------------------------------
function str_to_utf8 ($str) {
if (mb_detect_encoding($str, 'UTF-8', true) === false) {
$str = utf8_encode($str);
}
return $str;
}
// ------------------------------------------------------
?>
$txtstr = str_to_utf8($txtstr);
d_maksimov ¶
2 years ago
It was helpful for my exec(...) call. When it returned cp866 or cp1251:
try {
$line = iconv('CP866', 'CP1251', $line);
} catch(Exception $e) {
}
return iconv('CP1251', 'UTF-8', $line);
recentUser at example dot com ¶
6 years ago
In my environment (PHP 7.1.12),
"mb_detect_encoding()" doesn't work
where "mb_detect_order()" is not set appropriately.
To enable "mb_detect_encoding()" to work in such a case,
simply put "mb_detect_order('...')"
before "mb_detect_encoding()" in your script file.
Both
"ini_set('mbstring.language', '...');"
and
"ini_set('mbstring.detect_order', '...');"
DON'T work in script files for this purpose
whereas setting them in PHP.INI file may work.
lotushzy at gmail dot com ¶
6 years ago
About function mb_detect_encoding, the link http://php.net/manual/zh/function.mb-detect-encoding.php , like this:
mb_detect_encoding('áéóú', 'UTF-8', true); // false
but now the result is not false, can you give me reason, thanks!
maarten ¶
19 years ago
Sometimes mb_detect_string is not what you need. When using pdflib for example you want to VERIFY the correctness of utf-8. mb_detect_encoding reports some iso-8859-1 encoded text as utf-8.
To verify utf 8 use the following:
//
// utf8 encoding validation developed based on Wikipedia entry at:
// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8
//
// Implemented as a recursive descent parser based on a simple state machine
// copyright 2005 Maarten Meijer
//
// This cries out for a C-implementation to be included in PHP core
//
function valid_1byte($char) {
if(!is_int($char)) return false;
return ($char & 0x80) == 0x00;
}
function valid_2byte($char) {
if(!is_int($char)) return false;
return ($char & 0xE0) == 0xC0;
}
function valid_3byte($char) {
if(!is_int($char)) return false;
return ($char & 0xF0) == 0xE0;
}
function valid_4byte($char) {
if(!is_int($char)) return false;
return ($char & 0xF8) == 0xF0;
}
function valid_nextbyte($char) {
if(!is_int($char)) return false;
return ($char & 0xC0) == 0x80;
}
function valid_utf8($string) {
$len = strlen($string);
$i = 0;
while( $i < $len ) {
$char = ord(substr($string, $i++, 1));
if(valid_1byte($char)) { // continue
continue;
} else if(valid_2byte($char)) { // check 1 byte
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
} else if(valid_3byte($char)) { // check 2 bytes
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
} else if(valid_4byte($char)) { // check 3 bytes
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
if(!valid_nextbyte(ord(substr($string, $i++, 1))))
return false;
} // goto next char
}
return true; // done
}
for a drawing of the statemachine see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mjmeijer/unicode.png and http://www.xs4all.nl/~mjmeijer/unicode2.png
telemach ¶
19 years ago
beware : even if you need to distinguish between UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1, and you the following detection order (as chrigu suggests)
mb_detect_encoding('accentu?e' , 'UTF-8, ISO-8859-1')
returns ISO-8859-1, while
mb_detect_encoding('accentu?' , 'UTF-8, ISO-8859-1')
returns UTF-8
bottom line : an ending '?' (and probably other accentuated chars) mislead mb_detect_encoding
Anonymous ¶
11 years ago
// -----------------------------------------------------------
if(!function_exists('mb_detect_encoding')) {
function mb_detect_encoding($string, $enc=null, $ret=true) {
$out=$enc;
static $list = array('utf-8', 'iso-8859-1', 'iso-8859-15', 'windows-1251');
foreach ($list as $item) {
$sample = iconv($item, $item, $string);
if (md5($sample) == md5($string)) { $out = ($ret !== false) ? true : $item; }
}
return $out;
}
}
// -----------------------------------------------------------
yaqy at qq dot com ¶
16 years ago
<?php
/*
*QQ: 290359552
* conver to Utf8 if $str is not equals to 'UTF-8'
*/
function convToUtf8($str)
{
if( mb_detect_encoding($str,"UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, GBK")!="UTF-8" )
{
return iconv("gbk","utf-8",$str);
}
else
{
return $str;
}
}
?>
lexonight at yahoo dot com ¶
8 years ago
<?php
$file = file_get_contents("somefile.txt");
$encodings = implode(',', mb_list_encodings());
echo mb_detect_encoding($file, $encodings, true);
?>
seems to work
matthijs at ischen dot nl ¶
15 years ago
I seriously underestimated the importance of setlocale...
<?php
$strings = array(
"mais coisas a pensar sobre diário ou dois!",
"plus de choses à penser à journalier ou à deux !",
"¡más cosas a pensar en diario o dos!",
"più cose da pensare circa giornaliere o due!",
"flere ting å tenke på hver dag eller to!",
"Další věcí, přemýšlet o každý den nebo dva!",
"mehr über Spaß spät schönen",
"më vonë gjatë fun bukur",
"több mint szórakozás késő csodálatos kenyér"
);
$convert = array();
setlocale(LC_CTYPE, 'de_DE.UTF-8');
foreach( $strings as $string )
$convert[] = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT//IGNORE', $string);
?>
Produces the following:
Array
(
[0] => mais coisas a pensar sobre diario ou dois!
[1] => plus de choses a penser a journalier ou a deux !
[2] => ?mas cosas a pensar en diario o dos!
[3] => piu cose da pensare circa giornaliere o due!
[4] => flere ting aa tenke paa hver dag eller to!
[5] => Dalsi veci, premyslet o kazdy den nebo dva!
[6] => mehr ueber Spass spaet schoenen
[7] => me vone gjate fun bukur
[8] => toebb mint szorakozas keso csodalatos kenyer
)
whereas
<?php
$convert = array();
setlocale(LC_CTYPE, 'nl_NL.UTF-8');
foreach( $strings as $string )
$convert[] = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT//IGNORE', $string);
?>
produces:
Array
(
[0] => mais coisas a pensar sobre di?rio ou dois!
[1] => plus de choses ? penser ? journalier ou ? deux !
[2] => ?m?s cosas a pensar en diario o dos!
[3] => pi? cose da pensare circa giornaliere o due!
[4] => flere ting ? tenke p? hver dag eller to!
[5] => Dal?? v?c?, p?em??let o ka?d? den nebo dva!
[6] => mehr ?ber Spass sp?t sch?nen
[7] => m? von? gjat? fun bukur
[8] => t?bb mint sz?rakoz?s k?s? csod?latos keny?r
)
This might be of interest when trying to convert utf-8 strings into ASCII suitable for URL's, and such. this was never obvious for me since I've used locales for us and nl.
jaaks at playtech dot com ¶
19 years ago
Last example for verifying UTF-8 has one little bug. If 10xxxxxx byte occurs alone i.e. not in multibyte char, then it is accepted although it is against UTF-8 rules. Make following replacement to repair it.
Replace
} // goto next char
with
} else {
return false; // 10xxxxxx occuring alone
} // goto next char
prgss at bk dot ru ¶
15 years ago
Another light way to detect character encoding:
<?php
function detect_encoding($string) {
static $list = array('utf-8', 'windows-1251');
foreach ($list as $item) {
$sample = iconv($item, $item, $string);
if (md5($sample) == md5($string))
return $item;
}
return null;
}
?>
