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Q&A Determine encoding of text

If your goal is to fix your files like David Cary's iconving does, but you can't tell the mis-encodings that transpired to create your text, you can use a little Python and the ftfy library[1] as f...

posted 1y ago by Michael‭  ·  edited 1y ago by Michael‭

Answer
#3: Post edited by user avatar Michael‭ · 2023-10-24T19:45:57Z (about 1 year ago)
Commentary
  • If your goal is to fix your files like [David Cary's `iconv`ing does][davidcary], but you _can't tell_ the mis-encodings that transpired to create your text, you can use a little Python and [the `ftfy` library][ftfy][^1] as [found in PyPI][pip] to undo the mess.
  • > ## Some quick examples
  • > Here are some examples (found in the real world) of what ftfy can do:
  • >
  • > ftfy can fix mojibake (encoding mix-ups), by detecting patterns of characters that were clearly meant to be UTF-8 but were decoded as something else:
  • >
  • > ```py
  • > >>> import ftfy
  • > >>> ftfy.fix_text('✔ No problems')
  • > '✔ No problems'
  • > ```
  • > Does this sound impossible? It’s really not. UTF-8 is a well-designed encoding that makes it obvious when it’s being misused, and a string of mojibake usually contains all the information we need to recover the original string.
  • >
  • > ftfy can fix multiple layers of mojibake simultaneously:
  • >
  • > ```py
  • > >>> ftfy.fix_text('The Mona Lisa doesn’t have eyebrows.')
  • > "The Mona Lisa doesn't have eyebrows."
  • > ```
  • [^1]: "Fixed that for you"
  • [davidcary]: https://powerusers.codidact.com/posts/289529/289602#answer-289602
  • [ftfy]: https://ftfy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
  • [pip]: https://pypi.org/project/ftfy/
  • If your goal is to fix your files like [David Cary's `iconv`ing][davidcary] does, but you _can't tell_ the mis-encodings that transpired to create your text, you can use a little Python and [the `ftfy` library][ftfy][^1] as [found in PyPI][pip] to undo the mess.
  • > ## Some quick examples
  • > Here are some examples (found in the real world) of what ftfy can do:
  • >
  • > ftfy can fix mojibake (encoding mix-ups), by detecting patterns of characters that were clearly meant to be UTF-8 but were decoded as something else:
  • >
  • > ```python
  • > >>> import ftfy
  • > >>> ftfy.fix_text('✔ No problems')
  • > '✔ No problems'
  • > ```
  • > Does this sound impossible? It’s really not. UTF-8 is a well-designed encoding that makes it obvious when it’s being misused, and a string of mojibake usually contains all the information we need to recover the original string.
  • >
  • > ftfy can fix multiple layers of mojibake simultaneously:
  • >
  • > ```python
  • > >>> ftfy.fix_text('The Mona Lisa doesn’t have eyebrows.')
  • > "The Mona Lisa doesn't have eyebrows."
  • > ```
  • I learned about `ftfy` several years after I wrote some (much less rigorous) tools to detect and unscramble content that had made its way through one or more different encodings.
  • [^1]: "Fixed that for you"
  • [davidcary]: https://powerusers.codidact.com/posts/289529/289602#answer-289602
  • [ftfy]: https://ftfy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
  • [pip]: https://pypi.org/project/ftfy/
#2: Post edited by user avatar Michael‭ · 2023-10-24T16:11:37Z (about 1 year ago)
Link David's answer
  • If your goal is to fix your files like David Cary's `iconv`ing does, but you _can't tell_ the mis-encodings that transpired to create your text, you can use a little Python and the [`ftfy`][ftfy] library[^1] [in PyPi][pip] to undo the mess.
  • > ## Some quick examples
  • > Here are some examples (found in the real world) of what ftfy can do:
  • >
  • > ftfy can fix mojibake (encoding mix-ups), by detecting patterns of characters that were clearly meant to be UTF-8 but were decoded as something else:
  • >
  • > ```py
  • > >>> import ftfy
  • > >>> ftfy.fix_text('✔ No problems')
  • > '✔ No problems'
  • > ```
  • > Does this sound impossible? It’s really not. UTF-8 is a well-designed encoding that makes it obvious when it’s being misused, and a string of mojibake usually contains all the information we need to recover the original string.
  • >
  • > ftfy can fix multiple layers of mojibake simultaneously:
  • >
  • > ```py
  • > >>> ftfy.fix_text('The Mona Lisa doesn’t have eyebrows.')
  • > "The Mona Lisa doesn't have eyebrows."
  • > ```
  • [^1]: "Fixed that for you"
  • [ftfy]: https://ftfy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
  • [pip]: https://pypi.org/project/ftfy/
  • If your goal is to fix your files like [David Cary's `iconv`ing does][davidcary], but you _can't tell_ the mis-encodings that transpired to create your text, you can use a little Python and [the `ftfy` library][ftfy][^1] as [found in PyPI][pip] to undo the mess.
  • > ## Some quick examples
  • > Here are some examples (found in the real world) of what ftfy can do:
  • >
  • > ftfy can fix mojibake (encoding mix-ups), by detecting patterns of characters that were clearly meant to be UTF-8 but were decoded as something else:
  • >
  • > ```py
  • > >>> import ftfy
  • > >>> ftfy.fix_text('✔ No problems')
  • > '✔ No problems'
  • > ```
  • > Does this sound impossible? It’s really not. UTF-8 is a well-designed encoding that makes it obvious when it’s being misused, and a string of mojibake usually contains all the information we need to recover the original string.
  • >
  • > ftfy can fix multiple layers of mojibake simultaneously:
  • >
  • > ```py
  • > >>> ftfy.fix_text('The Mona Lisa doesn’t have eyebrows.')
  • > "The Mona Lisa doesn't have eyebrows."
  • > ```
  • [^1]: "Fixed that for you"
  • [davidcary]: https://powerusers.codidact.com/posts/289529/289602#answer-289602
  • [ftfy]: https://ftfy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
  • [pip]: https://pypi.org/project/ftfy/
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Michael‭ · 2023-10-20T20:55:39Z (about 1 year ago)
If your goal is to fix your files like David Cary's `iconv`ing does, but you _can't tell_ the mis-encodings that transpired to create your text, you can use a little Python and the [`ftfy`][ftfy] library[^1] [in PyPi][pip] to undo the mess.

> ## Some quick examples
> Here are some examples (found in the real world) of what ftfy can do:
> 
> ftfy can fix mojibake (encoding mix-ups), by detecting patterns of characters that were clearly meant to be UTF-8 but were decoded as something else:
>
> ```py
> >>> import ftfy
> >>> ftfy.fix_text('✔ No problems')
> '✔ No problems'
> ```
> Does this sound impossible? It’s really not. UTF-8 is a well-designed encoding that makes it obvious when it’s being misused, and a string of mojibake usually contains all the information we need to recover the original string.
> 
> ftfy can fix multiple layers of mojibake simultaneously:
>
> ```py
> >>> ftfy.fix_text('The Mona Lisa doesn’t have eyebrows.')
> "The Mona Lisa doesn't have eyebrows."
> ```

[^1]: "Fixed that for you"

[ftfy]: https://ftfy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
[pip]: https://pypi.org/project/ftfy/