how to check if a string is utf-8?

[Aart01]

I am looking for a function within AutoIT to verify the encoding of a string. I need to check if it is UTF-8.

If found the function "FileGetEncoding", but it is specificialy for files not for strings.

Any ideas?

[guinness]

Search for WinAPIEx.au3 by Yashied and use the function _WinAPI_GetString().

[jchd]

No way _WinAPI_GetString can devise that!

There is no test to correctly tell you if a given string in ANSI or UTF-8.

On the contrary,there is one that can tell you surely if a string is valid UTF-8, but the issue is that a valid UTF-8 string is also a valid ANSI string with a different content (depending on the codepage).

For instance, look at the 3-byte string represented in hex by E2 82 AC

As an "Occidental ANSI" Windows string, it represents the 3-characters string '€' whose normalized names are

(LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX, SINGLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK, NOT SIGN)

Of course this interpretation depends on the ANSI codepage you choose to interpret it with.

As an UTF-8 string it represents the single character € (EURO SYMBOL).

You unfortunately need a human brain to decide which interpretation makes sense in the situation where you find the string.

[Aart01]

Thanks for the reply. Maybe I should specify the reason why I am asking for this check:

I am using AutoIT to scrape a website for links, this website is in UTF-8.

Generally I am using the following to extract the URLs.

$oTDs = _IETagnameGetCollection($oIE, "TD")

For $oTD in $oTDs

if String($oTD.ClassName) ="cellName" Then

$oAs = _IETagnameGetCollection($oTD, "A")

For $oA in $oAs

$URL = $oA.Href

Next

EndIf

Next

The final link ($URL) is then posted to a webserver. My problem is that when that information arrives there it is no longer UTF-8.

Is there a way that the encoding is influenced by AutoIT / or any of it's functions?

[guinness]

Disregard my last post about _WinAPI_GetString() as this doesn't achieve what you're looking for. I misread the Help file for WinAPIEx.au3, it happens once in a while.