Added in API level 1

Charset

abstract class Charset : Comparable<Charset!>

kotlin.Any
↳	java.nio.charset.Charset

A named mapping between sequences of sixteen-bit Unicode code units and sequences of bytes. This class defines methods for creating decoders and encoders and for retrieving the various names associated with a charset. Instances of this class are immutable.

This class also defines static methods for testing whether a particular charset is supported, for locating charset instances by name, and for constructing a map that contains every charset for which support is available in the current Java virtual machine. Support for new charsets can be added via the service-provider interface defined in the class.

All of the methods defined in this class are safe for use by multiple concurrent threads.

Charset names

Charsets are named by strings composed of the following characters:

• The uppercase letters 'A' through 'Z' ('\u0041' through '\u005a'),
• The lowercase letters 'a' through 'z' ('\u0061' through '\u007a'),
• The digits '0' through '9' ('\u0030' through '\u0039'),
• The dash character '-' ('\u002d', HYPHEN-MINUS),
• The plus character '+' ('\u002b', PLUS SIGN),
• The period character '.' ('\u002e', FULL STOP),
• The colon character ':' ('\u003a', COLON), and
• The underscore character '_' ('\u005f', LOW LINE).

A charset name must begin with either a letter or a digit. The empty string is not a legal charset name. Charset names are not case-sensitive; that is, case is always ignored when comparing charset names. Charset names generally follow the conventions documented in RFC 2278: IANA Charset Registration Procedures.

Every charset has a canonical name and may also have one or more aliases. The canonical name is returned by the name method of this class. Canonical names are, by convention, usually in upper case. The aliases of a charset are returned by the aliases method.

Some charsets have an historical name that is defined for compatibility with previous versions of the Java platform. A charset's historical name is either its canonical name or one of its aliases. The historical name is returned by the getEncoding() methods of the InputStreamReader and OutputStreamWriter classes.

If a charset listed in the IANA Charset Registry is supported by an implementation of the Java platform then its canonical name must be the name listed in the registry. Many charsets are given more than one name in the registry, in which case the registry identifies one of the names as MIME-preferred. If a charset has more than one registry name then its canonical name must be the MIME-preferred name and the other names in the registry must be valid aliases. If a supported charset is not listed in the IANA registry then its canonical name must begin with one of the strings "X-" or "x-".

The IANA charset registry does change over time, and so the canonical name and the aliases of a particular charset may also change over time. To ensure compatibility it is recommended that no alias ever be removed from a charset, and that if the canonical name of a charset is changed then its previous canonical name be made into an alias.

Standard charsets

Every implementation of the Java platform is required to support the following standard charsets. Consult the release documentation for your implementation to see if any other charsets are supported. The behavior of such optional charsets may differ between implementations.

Description of standard charsets

Charset	Description
US-ASCII	Seven-bit ASCII, a.k.a. ISO646-US, a.k.a. the Basic Latin block of the Unicode character set
ISO-8859-1	ISO Latin Alphabet No. 1, a.k.a. ISO-LATIN-1
UTF-8	Eight-bit UCS Transformation Format
UTF-16BE	Sixteen-bit UCS Transformation Format, big-endian byte order
UTF-16LE	Sixteen-bit UCS Transformation Format, little-endian byte order
UTF-16	Sixteen-bit UCS Transformation Format, byte order identified by an optional byte-order mark

The UTF-8 charset is specified by RFC 2279; the transformation format upon which it is based is specified in Amendment 2 of ISO 10646-1 and is also described in the Unicode Standard.

The UTF-16 charsets are specified by RFC 2781; the transformation formats upon which they are based are specified in Amendment 1 of ISO 10646-1 and are also described in the Unicode Standard.

The UTF-16 charsets use sixteen-bit quantities and are therefore sensitive to byte order. In these encodings the byte order of a stream may be indicated by an initial byte-order mark represented by the Unicode character '\uFEFF'. Byte-order marks are handled as follows:

• When decoding, the UTF-16BE and UTF-16LE charsets interpret the initial byte-order marks as a ZERO-WIDTH NON-BREAKING SPACE; when encoding, they do not write byte-order marks.
• When decoding, the UTF-16 charset interprets the byte-order mark at the beginning of the input stream to indicate the byte-order of the stream but defaults to big-endian if there is no byte-order mark; when encoding, it uses big-endian byte order and writes a big-endian byte-order mark.

In any case, byte order marks occurring after the first element of an input sequence are not omitted since the same code is used to represent ZERO-WIDTH NON-BREAKING SPACE.

Android note: The Android platform default is always UTF-8.

The StandardCharsets class defines constants for each of the standard charsets.

Terminology

The name of this class is taken from the terms used in RFC 2278. In that document a charset is defined as the combination of one or more coded character sets and a character-encoding scheme. (This definition is confusing; some other software systems define charset as a synonym for coded character set.)

A coded character set is a mapping between a set of abstract characters and a set of integers. US-ASCII, ISO 8859-1, JIS X 0201, and Unicode are examples of coded character sets.

Some standards have defined a character set to be simply a set of abstract characters without an associated assigned numbering. An alphabet is an example of such a character set. However, the subtle distinction between character set and coded character set is rarely used in practice; the former has become a short form for the latter, including in the Java API specification.

A character-encoding scheme is a mapping between one or more coded character sets and a set of octet (eight-bit byte) sequences. UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO 2022, and EUC are examples of character-encoding schemes. Encoding schemes are often associated with a particular coded character set; UTF-8, for example, is used only to encode Unicode. Some schemes, however, are associated with multiple coded character sets; EUC, for example, can be used to encode characters in a variety of Asian coded character sets.

When a coded character set is used exclusively with a single character-encoding scheme then the corresponding charset is usually named for the coded character set; otherwise a charset is usually named for the encoding scheme and, possibly, the locale of the coded character sets that it supports. Hence US-ASCII is both the name of a coded character set and of the charset that encodes it, while EUC-JP is the name of the charset that encodes the JIS X 0201, JIS X 0208, and JIS X 0212 coded character sets for the Japanese language.

The native character encoding of the Java programming language is UTF-16. A charset in the Java platform therefore defines a mapping between sequences of sixteen-bit UTF-16 code units (that is, sequences of chars) and sequences of bytes.

Summary

Protected constructors
Charset(canonicalName: String!, aliases: Array<String!>!) Initializes a new charset with the given canonical name and alias set.

Public methods
MutableSet<String!>!	aliases() Returns a set containing this charset's aliases.
open static SortedMap<String!, Charset!>!	availableCharsets() Constructs a sorted map from canonical charset names to charset objects.
open Boolean	canEncode() Tells whether or not this charset supports encoding.
Int	compareTo(other: Charset!) Compares this charset to another.
abstract Boolean	contains(cs: Charset!) Tells whether or not this charset contains the given charset.
CharBuffer!	decode(bb: ByteBuffer!) Convenience method that decodes bytes in this charset into Unicode characters.
open static Charset!	defaultCharset() Returns the default charset of this Java virtual machine.
open String!	displayName() Returns this charset's human-readable name for the default locale.
open String!	displayName(locale: Locale!) Returns this charset's human-readable name for the given locale.
ByteBuffer!	encode(str: String!) Convenience method that encodes a string into bytes in this charset.
ByteBuffer!	encode(cb: CharBuffer!) Convenience method that encodes Unicode characters into bytes in this charset.
Boolean	equals(other: Any?) Tells whether or not this object is equal to another.
open static Charset!	forName(charsetName: String!) Returns a charset object for the named charset.
Int	hashCode() Computes a hashcode for this charset.
Boolean	isRegistered() Tells whether or not this charset is registered in the IANA Charset Registry.
open static Boolean	isSupported(charsetName: String!) Tells whether the named charset is supported.
String!	name() Returns this charset's canonical name.
abstract CharsetDecoder!	newDecoder() Constructs a new decoder for this charset.
abstract CharsetEncoder!	newEncoder() Constructs a new encoder for this charset.
String	toString() Returns a string describing this charset.

Protected constructors

Charset

Added in API level 1

protected Charset(
    canonicalName: String!, 
    aliases: Array<String!>!)

Initializes a new charset with the given canonical name and alias set.

Parameters
canonicalName	String!: The canonical name of this charset
aliases	Array<String!>!: An array of this charset's aliases, or null if it has no aliases

Exceptions
java.nio.charset.IllegalCharsetNameException	If the canonical name or any of the aliases are illegal

Public methods

aliases

Added in API level 1

fun aliases(): MutableSet<String!>!

Returns a set containing this charset's aliases.

Return
MutableSet<String!>!	An immutable set of this charset's aliases

availableCharsets

Added in API level 1

open static fun availableCharsets(): SortedMap<String!, Charset!>!

Constructs a sorted map from canonical charset names to charset objects.

The map returned by this method will have one entry for each charset for which support is available in the current Java virtual machine. If two or more supported charsets have the same canonical name then the resulting map will contain just one of them; which one it will contain is not specified.

The invocation of this method, and the subsequent use of the resulting map, may cause time-consuming disk or network I/O operations to occur. This method is provided for applications that need to enumerate all of the available charsets, for example to allow user charset selection. This method is not used by the forName method, which instead employs an efficient incremental lookup algorithm.

This method may return different results at different times if new charset providers are dynamically made available to the current Java virtual machine. In the absence of such changes, the charsets returned by this method are exactly those that can be retrieved via the forName method.

Return
SortedMap<String!, Charset!>!	An immutable, case-insensitive map from canonical charset names to charset objects

canEncode

Added in API level 1

open fun canEncode(): Boolean

Tells whether or not this charset supports encoding.

Nearly all charsets support encoding. The primary exceptions are special-purpose auto-detect charsets whose decoders can determine which of several possible encoding schemes is in use by examining the input byte sequence. Such charsets do not support encoding because there is no way to determine which encoding should be used on output. Implementations of such charsets should override this method to return false.

Return
Boolean	true if, and only if, this charset supports encoding

compareTo

Added in API level 1

fun compareTo(other: Charset!): Int

Compares this charset to another.

Charsets are ordered by their canonical names, without regard to case.

Parameters
o	the object to be compared.
that	The charset to which this charset is to be compared

Return
Int	A negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as this charset is less than, equal to, or greater than the specified charset

Exceptions
java.lang.NullPointerException	if the specified object is null
java.lang.ClassCastException	if the specified object's type prevents it from being compared to this object.

contains

Added in API level 1

abstract fun contains(cs: Charset!): Boolean

Tells whether or not this charset contains the given charset.

A charset C is said to contain a charset D if, and only if, every character representable in D is also representable in C. If this relationship holds then it is guaranteed that every string that can be encoded in D can also be encoded in C without performing any replacements.

That C contains D does not imply that each character representable in C by a particular byte sequence is represented in D by the same byte sequence, although sometimes this is the case.

Every charset contains itself.

This method computes an approximation of the containment relation: If it returns true then the given charset is known to be contained by this charset; if it returns false, however, then it is not necessarily the case that the given charset is not contained in this charset.

Parameters
cs	Charset!: The given charset

Return
Boolean	true if the given charset is contained in this charset

decode

Added in API level 1

fun decode(bb: ByteBuffer!): CharBuffer!

Convenience method that decodes bytes in this charset into Unicode characters.

An invocation of this method upon a charset cs returns the same result as the expression

cs.newDecoder()
        .onMalformedInput(CodingErrorAction.REPLACE)
        .onUnmappableCharacter(CodingErrorAction.REPLACE)
        .decode(bb); 

except that it is potentially more efficient because it can cache decoders between successive invocations.

This method always replaces malformed-input and unmappable-character sequences with this charset's default replacement byte array. In order to detect such sequences, use the java.nio.charset.CharsetDecoder#decode(java.nio.ByteBuffer) method directly.

Parameters
bb	ByteBuffer!: The byte buffer to be decoded

Return
CharBuffer!	A char buffer containing the decoded characters

defaultCharset

Added in API level 1

open static fun defaultCharset(): Charset!

Returns the default charset of this Java virtual machine.

Android note: The Android platform default is always UTF-8.

Return
Charset!	A charset object for the default charset

displayName

Added in API level 1

open fun displayName(): String!

Returns this charset's human-readable name for the default locale.

The default implementation of this method simply returns this charset's canonical name. Concrete subclasses of this class may override this method in order to provide a localized display name.

Return
String!	The display name of this charset in the default locale

displayName

Added in API level 1

open fun displayName(locale: Locale!): String!

Returns this charset's human-readable name for the given locale.

The default implementation of this method simply returns this charset's canonical name. Concrete subclasses of this class may override this method in order to provide a localized display name.

Parameters
locale	Locale!: The locale for which the display name is to be retrieved

Return
String!	The display name of this charset in the given locale

encode

Added in API level 1

fun encode(str: String!): ByteBuffer!

Convenience method that encodes a string into bytes in this charset.

An invocation of this method upon a charset cs returns the same result as the expression

cs.encode(CharBuffer.wrap(s)); 

Parameters
str	String!: The string to be encoded

Return
ByteBuffer!	A byte buffer containing the encoded characters

encode

Added in API level 1

fun encode(cb: CharBuffer!): ByteBuffer!

Convenience method that encodes Unicode characters into bytes in this charset.

An invocation of this method upon a charset cs returns the same result as the expression

cs.newEncoder()
        .onMalformedInput(CodingErrorAction.REPLACE)
        .onUnmappableCharacter(CodingErrorAction.REPLACE)
        .encode(bb); 

except that it is potentially more efficient because it can cache encoders between successive invocations.

This method always replaces malformed-input and unmappable-character sequences with this charset's default replacement string. In order to detect such sequences, use the java.nio.charset.CharsetEncoder#encode(java.nio.CharBuffer) method directly.

Parameters
cb	CharBuffer!: The char buffer to be encoded

Return
ByteBuffer!	A byte buffer containing the encoded characters

equals

Added in API level 1

fun equals(other: Any?): Boolean

Tells whether or not this object is equal to another.

Two charsets are equal if, and only if, they have the same canonical names. A charset is never equal to any other type of object.

Parameters
obj	the reference object with which to compare.

Return
Boolean	true if, and only if, this charset is equal to the given object

forName

Added in API level 1

open static fun forName(charsetName: String!): Charset!

Returns a charset object for the named charset.

Parameters
charsetName	String!: The name of the requested charset; may be either a canonical name or an alias

Return
Charset!	A charset object for the named charset

Exceptions
java.nio.charset.IllegalCharsetNameException	If the given charset name is illegal
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException	If the given charsetName is null
java.nio.charset.UnsupportedCharsetException	If no support for the named charset is available in this instance of the Java virtual machine

hashCode

Added in API level 1

fun hashCode(): Int

Computes a hashcode for this charset.

Return
Int	An integer hashcode

isRegistered

Added in API level 1

fun isRegistered(): Boolean

Tells whether or not this charset is registered in the IANA Charset Registry.

Return
Boolean	true if, and only if, this charset is known by its implementor to be registered with the IANA

isSupported

Added in API level 1

open static fun isSupported(charsetName: String!): Boolean

Tells whether the named charset is supported.

Parameters
charsetName	String!: The name of the requested charset; may be either a canonical name or an alias

Return
Boolean	true if, and only if, support for the named charset is available in the current Java virtual machine

Exceptions
java.nio.charset.IllegalCharsetNameException	If the given charset name is illegal
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException	If the given charsetName is null

name

Added in API level 1

fun name(): String!

Returns this charset's canonical name.

Return
String!	The canonical name of this charset

newDecoder

Added in API level 1

abstract fun newDecoder(): CharsetDecoder!

Constructs a new decoder for this charset.

Return
CharsetDecoder!	A new decoder for this charset

newEncoder

Added in API level 1

abstract fun newEncoder(): CharsetEncoder!

Constructs a new encoder for this charset.

Return
CharsetEncoder!	A new encoder for this charset

Exceptions
java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException	If this charset does not support encoding

toString

Added in API level 1

fun toString(): String

Returns a string describing this charset.

Return
String	A string describing this charset