Charset Delphi DLL Reference Documentation
Charset
Current Version: 11.5.0
Deprecated — scheduled for removal
Store raw bytes, load and save files, append byte-order marks, and move
encoded data between files, memory, and other Chilkat objects.
Hold Unicode text and perform charset encoding or decoding, URL
processing, HTML entity conversion, case conversion, and related text
operations.
For new text formats and interchange, use UTF-8 unless a protocol or
legacy system explicitly requires another encoding.
A charset defines how text characters map to bytes. Binary encodings such
as Base64 or hexadecimal solve a different problem and are not character
sets.
The class can inspect and rewrite HTML charset metadata, but these
helpers do not validate that declared metadata matches the actual bytes.
Continue using this class only while maintaining older code, and plan a
tested migration before adopting Chilkat v12.
Legacy character-set conversion utilities. Migrate before Chilkat v12.0.0.
Chilkat.Charset is a legacy class for converting text between
character encodings, reading and writing encoded text files, inspecting or
rewriting HTML charset declarations, encoding and decoding HTML entities,
validating byte sequences, and performing several older text utilities.
It remains documented only to support maintenance and migration of existing
applications.
Use BinData for bytes
Use StringBuilder for text
Prefer UTF-8
Keep bytes and characters distinct
Legacy HTML helpers
Maintenance only
BinData, decode them into a
StringBuilder using the known source charset, work with Unicode
text, then encode back into BinData using the required
destination charset. This makes the boundary between bytes and text explicit
and replaces the stateful FromCharset/ToCharset
workflow.
Create/Dispose
var myObject: HCkCharset; begin myObject := CkCharset_Create(); // ... CkCharset_Dispose(myObject); end;
Creates an instance of the HCkCharset object and returns a handle (i.e. a Pointer). The handle is passed in the 1st argument for the functions listed on this page.
Objects created by calling CkCharset_Create must be freed by calling this method. A memory leak occurs if a handle is not disposed by calling this function.
Properties
AltToCharset
procedure CkCharset_putAltToCharset(objHandle: HCkCharset; newPropVal: PWideChar); stdcall;
function CkCharset__altToCharset(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
Specifies the alternate destination character encoding used only when ErrorAction is 6.
If a decoded input character cannot be represented in ToCharset, Chilkat attempts to encode that character using this alternate charset. If the alternate conversion also fails, the character is omitted from the output.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topDebugLogFilePath
procedure CkCharset_putDebugLogFilePath(objHandle: HCkCharset; newPropVal: PWideChar); stdcall;
function CkCharset__debugLogFilePath(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.
Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.
Possible causes of hangs include:
- A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
- A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
- An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
ErrorAction
procedure CkCharset_putErrorAction(objHandle: HCkCharset; newPropVal: Integer); stdcall;
Controls what happens when an input character has been decoded successfully but cannot be represented in the destination charset.
| Value | Action |
|---|---|
0 | Drop the unrepresentable character. |
1 | Insert the replacement configured by SetErrorString. |
2 | Emit a hexadecimal numeric character reference such as €. |
3–5 | Reserved. Do not use. |
6 | Encode the character using AltToCharset; drop it if that also fails. |
7 | Pass the nonconvertible data through unchanged. |
0, 6, and 7 can silently lose data or produce output that is not valid in the declared destination charset. For new code, prefer an explicit failure or replacement policy in the replacement API.FromCharset
procedure CkCharset_putFromCharset(objHandle: HCkCharset; newPropVal: PWideChar); stdcall;
function CkCharset__fromCharset(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
Specifies the character encoding of the input bytes for conversion operations. Chilkat decodes the source bytes using this charset before encoding the resulting Unicode text using ToCharset.
| Family | Recognized names |
|---|---|
| Unicode and ASCII | us-ascii, utf-7, utf-8, unicode / utf-16 / utf-16le, unicodefffe / utf-16be, utf-32, utf-32be |
| ISO and Windows | iso-8859-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9, -13, -15; windows-874, windows-1250 through windows-1258 |
| East Asian | shift_jis, gb2312, ks_c_5601-1987, big5, iso-2022-jp, iso-2022-kr, euc-jp, euc-kr |
| Macintosh | macintosh, x-mac-japanese, x-mac-chinesetrad, x-mac-korean, x-mac-arabic, x-mac-hebrew, x-mac-greek, x-mac-cyrillic, x-mac-chinesesimp, x-mac-romanian, x-mac-ukrainian, x-mac-thai, x-mac-ce, x-mac-icelandic, x-mac-turkish, x-mac-croatian |
| DOS, IBM, and legacy | ebcdic, asmo-708, dos-720, dos-862, ibm01140 through ibm01149, ibm037, ibm437, ibm500, ibm737, ibm775, ibm850, ibm852, ibm855, ibm857, ibm00858, ibm860, ibm861, ibm863, ibm864, ibm865, cp866, ibm869, ibm870, cp875, koi8-r, koi8-u |
unicode, utf-16, and utf-16le identify little-endian UTF-16. unicodefffe and utf-16be identify big-endian UTF-16. Except where a method explicitly documents HTML metadata detection, set the source charset explicitly rather than assuming automatic detection.See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topLastErrorHtml
function CkCharset__lastErrorHtml(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topLastErrorText
function CkCharset__lastErrorText(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
LastErrorXml
function CkCharset__lastErrorXml(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topLastInputAsHex
function CkCharset__lastInputAsHex(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
Returns the input bytes captured for the most recent conversion performed while SaveLast was enabled, represented as hexadecimal text.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topLastInputAsQP
function CkCharset__lastInputAsQP(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
Returns the input bytes captured for the most recent conversion performed while SaveLast was enabled, represented as quoted-printable text.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topLastMethodSuccess
procedure CkCharset_putLastMethodSuccess(objHandle: HCkCharset; newPropVal: wordbool); stdcall;
Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: True means success, False means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages. Note: This property does not apply to methods that return integer values or to boolean-returning methods where the boolean does not indicate success or failure.
LastOutputAsHex
function CkCharset__lastOutputAsHex(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
Returns the output bytes captured for the most recent conversion performed while SaveLast was enabled, represented as hexadecimal text.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topLastOutputAsQP
function CkCharset__lastOutputAsQP(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
Returns the output bytes captured for the most recent conversion performed while SaveLast was enabled, represented as quoted-printable text.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topSaveLast
procedure CkCharset_putSaveLast(objHandle: HCkCharset; newPropVal: wordbool); stdcall;
When True, retains the input and output byte sequences from each conversion so they can be inspected through LastInputAsHex, LastInputAsQP, LastOutputAsHex, and LastOutputAsQP.
ToCharset
procedure CkCharset_putToCharset(objHandle: HCkCharset; newPropVal: PWideChar); stdcall;
function CkCharset__toCharset(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
Specifies the destination character encoding for conversion operations. After decoding the source bytes using FromCharset, Chilkat encodes the resulting Unicode text in this charset.
| Family | Recognized names |
|---|---|
| Unicode and ASCII | us-ascii, utf-7, utf-8, unicode / utf-16 / utf-16le, unicodefffe / utf-16be, utf-32, utf-32be |
| ISO and Windows | iso-8859-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9, -13, -15; windows-874, windows-1250 through windows-1258 |
| East Asian | shift_jis, gb2312, ks_c_5601-1987, big5, iso-2022-jp, iso-2022-kr, euc-jp, euc-kr |
| Macintosh | macintosh, x-mac-japanese, x-mac-chinesetrad, x-mac-korean, x-mac-arabic, x-mac-hebrew, x-mac-greek, x-mac-cyrillic, x-mac-chinesesimp, x-mac-romanian, x-mac-ukrainian, x-mac-thai, x-mac-ce, x-mac-icelandic, x-mac-turkish, x-mac-croatian |
| DOS, IBM, and legacy | ebcdic, asmo-708, dos-720, dos-862, ibm01140 through ibm01149, ibm037, ibm437, ibm500, ibm737, ibm775, ibm850, ibm852, ibm855, ibm857, ibm00858, ibm860, ibm861, ibm863, ibm864, ibm865, cp866, ibm869, ibm870, cp875, koi8-r, koi8-u |
utf-8 is normally the preferred destination. Legacy single-byte encodings cannot represent every Unicode character; ErrorAction controls how such conversion failures are handled.See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topVerboseLogging
procedure CkCharset_putVerboseLogging(objHandle: HCkCharset; newPropVal: wordbool); stdcall;
If set to True, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is False. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.
Version
function CkCharset__version(objHandle: HCkCharset): PWideChar; stdcall;
Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
Methods
CharsetToCodePage
charsetName: PWideChar): Integer; stdcall;
Returns the numeric Windows code-page identifier corresponding to charsetName. For example, iso-8859-1 maps to 28591, and utf-8 maps to 65001.
utf-8 rather than numeric code pages.CodePageToCharset
codePage: Integer;
outCharset: HCkString): wordbool; stdcall;
function CkCharset__codePageToCharset(objHandle: HCkCharset;
codePage: Integer): PWideChar; stdcall;
Returns the charset name corresponding to the numeric code-page identifier in codePage. For example, 65001 maps to utf-8. The operation fails when the code page is not recognized.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topConvertFile
inPath: PWideChar;
destPath: PWideChar): wordbool; stdcall;
Reads the file at inPath, converts its text from FromCharset to ToCharset, and writes the converted bytes to the file at destPath.
When the destination charset is utf-8 or utf-16, this method writes the corresponding byte-order mark (BOM) at the beginning of the output. Use ConvertFileNoPreamble when the output must not contain a BOM.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
ConvertFileNoPreamble
inPath: PWideChar;
destPath: PWideChar): wordbool; stdcall;
Reads the file at inPath, converts its text from FromCharset to ToCharset, and writes the converted bytes to destPath without adding a byte-order mark or other encoding preamble.
ConvertHtmlFile
inPath: PWideChar;
destPath: PWideChar): wordbool; stdcall;
Converts the HTML file at inPath to ToCharset and writes the result to destPath. Chilkat also updates the HTML <meta> charset declaration to identify the destination encoding.
If FromCharset is empty, Chilkat attempts to obtain the source charset from an HTML <meta> declaration. Otherwise, the explicitly configured source charset is used.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topEntityEncodeDec
str: PWideChar;
outStr: HCkString): wordbool; stdcall;
function CkCharset__entityEncodeDec(objHandle: HCkCharset;
str: PWideChar): PWideChar; stdcall;
Returns str with each non-US-ASCII character replaced by a decimal HTML/XML numeric character reference. For example, é becomes é.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topEntityEncodeHex
str: PWideChar;
outStr: HCkString): wordbool; stdcall;
function CkCharset__entityEncodeHex(objHandle: HCkCharset;
str: PWideChar): PWideChar; stdcall;
Returns str with each non-US-ASCII character replaced by a hexadecimal HTML/XML numeric character reference. For example, é becomes é.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topGetHtmlFileCharset
htmlFilePath: PWideChar;
outCharset: HCkString): wordbool; stdcall;
function CkCharset__getHtmlFileCharset(objHandle: HCkCharset;
htmlFilePath: PWideChar): PWideChar; stdcall;
Examines the HTML file at htmlFilePath and returns the charset name declared by an HTML <meta> element, when present.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topHtmlDecodeToStr
inStr: PWideChar;
outStr: HCkString): wordbool; stdcall;
function CkCharset__htmlDecodeToStr(objHandle: HCkCharset;
inStr: PWideChar): PWideChar; stdcall;
Decodes HTML named entities and numeric character references in inStr and returns the resulting Unicode string. Examples include <, &, é, and é.
<, >, and &.Returns True for success, False for failure.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topHtmlEntityDecodeFile
inPath: PWideChar;
destPath: PWideChar): wordbool; stdcall;
Reads the file at inPath, decodes HTML named entities and numeric character references, and writes the transformed content to destPath.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topLowerCase
inStr: PWideChar;
outStr: HCkString): wordbool; stdcall;
function CkCharset__lowerCase(objHandle: HCkCharset;
inStr: PWideChar): PWideChar; stdcall;
Returns the lowercase form of inStr using Chilkat’s Unicode case conversion.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topReadFileToString
path: PWideChar;
charset: PWideChar;
outStr: HCkString): wordbool; stdcall;
function CkCharset__readFileToString(objHandle: HCkCharset;
path: PWideChar;
charset: PWideChar): PWideChar; stdcall;
Reads the text file at path, decodes its bytes using the charset named by charset, and returns the resulting Unicode string.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topSetErrorString
str: PWideChar;
charset: PWideChar) stdcall;
Configures the replacement used when ErrorAction is 1. str is the replacement text, and charset identifies the charset used to encode that replacement into the conversion output.
?, but explicit error handling is safer when data loss is unacceptable.UpperCase
inStr: PWideChar;
outStr: HCkString): wordbool; stdcall;
function CkCharset__upperCase(objHandle: HCkCharset;
inStr: PWideChar): PWideChar; stdcall;
Returns the uppercase form of inStr using Chilkat’s Unicode case conversion.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topUrlDecodeStr
inStr: PWideChar;
outStr: HCkString): wordbool; stdcall;
function CkCharset__urlDecodeStr(objHandle: HCkCharset;
inStr: PWideChar): PWideChar; stdcall;
Percent-decodes inStr and interprets the resulting bytes using the platform’s legacy ANSI character encoding.
For example, in a Western Windows code page, %C9 may decode as É. UTF-8 input would encode the same character as %C3%89 and is therefore not handled correctly by this legacy assumption.
StringBuilder URL decoding with an explicit charset, normally utf-8.Returns True for success, False for failure.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topVerifyFile
charset: PWideChar;
path: PWideChar): wordbool; stdcall;
Returns True when the contents of the file at path form a valid byte sequence for the charset named by charset; otherwise returns False.
WriteStringToFile
textData: PWideChar;
path: PWideChar;
charset: PWideChar): wordbool; stdcall;
Encodes the Unicode text in textData using the charset named by charset and writes the resulting bytes to the file at path.
utf-8 for modern interchange unless a receiving system requires a specific legacy encoding.Returns True for success, False for failure.
topDeprecated
ConvertData Deprecated
inData: HCkByteData;
outData: HCkByteData): wordbool; stdcall;
Converts the bytes in inData from FromCharset to ToCharset and returns the converted bytes.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topConvertFromUnicode Deprecated
inData: PWideChar;
outBytes: HCkByteData): wordbool; stdcall;
Encodes the Unicode string in inData using ToCharset and returns the resulting bytes.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topConvertFromUtf16 Deprecated
uniData: HCkByteData;
outMbData: HCkByteData): wordbool; stdcall;
Converts the UTF-16 byte sequence in uniData to the character encoding specified by ToCharset and returns the resulting bytes.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topConvertHtml Deprecated
inData: HCkByteData;
outHtml: HCkByteData): wordbool; stdcall;
Converts HTML bytes in inData from FromCharset to ToCharset. The returned bytes contain the converted HTML, and Chilkat updates the HTML <meta> charset declaration to identify the destination encoding.
<meta charset> declaration does not change HTTP response headers. When serving the converted file over HTTP, the server’s Content-Type charset must agree with the actual bytes.Returns True for success, False for failure.
topConvertToUnicode Deprecated
inData: HCkByteData;
outStr: HCkString): wordbool; stdcall;
function CkCharset__convertToUnicode(objHandle: HCkCharset;
inData: HCkByteData): PWideChar; stdcall;
Decodes the bytes in inData using FromCharset and returns the resulting Unicode string.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topConvertToUtf16 Deprecated
mbData: HCkByteData;
outUniData: HCkByteData): wordbool; stdcall;
Decodes the bytes in mbData using FromCharset and returns the text encoded as UTF-16 bytes.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topGetHtmlCharset Deprecated
inData: HCkByteData;
outCharset: HCkString): wordbool; stdcall;
function CkCharset__getHtmlCharset(objHandle: HCkCharset;
inData: HCkByteData): PWideChar; stdcall;
Examines the HTML bytes in inData and returns the charset name declared by an HTML <meta> element, when present.
Content-Type header.Returns True for success, False for failure.
See the notes about PWideChar memory ownership and validity.
topHtmlEntityDecode Deprecated
inHtml: HCkByteData;
outData: HCkByteData): wordbool; stdcall;
Decodes HTML entities and numeric character references in the byte data supplied in inHtml and returns the resulting bytes.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topReadFile Deprecated
path: PWideChar;
outData: HCkByteData): wordbool; stdcall;
Reads the entire file at path and returns its raw bytes without performing charset conversion.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topVerifyData Deprecated
charset: PWideChar;
inData: HCkByteData): wordbool; stdcall;
Returns True when the bytes in inData form a valid sequence for the charset named by charset; otherwise returns False.
WriteFile Deprecated
path: PWideChar;
byteData: HCkByteData): wordbool; stdcall;
Writes all bytes from byteData to the file at path without performing charset conversion.