CONVERT XML file encoding with UTF-8 into UTF-16 in c#

Question

Hi could u please give me an idea how can i convert xml file with UTF-8 encode into UTF-16 encoding in c#. thanks in advance jitendra

Vulpes · Answer

If you want to preserve the original file (at least during testing) the code will be something like this: // add to your using directives using System.Xml.Linq; // within some method string utf8FilePath = whatever.xml; // use actual path here string utf16FilePath = whatever2.xml; // ditto var doc = XDocument.Load(utf8FilePath); // change encoding doc.Declaration.Encoding = utf-16; // resave to new file doc.Save(utf16FilePath);

jit sun · Answer

Hi Vulpes I got solution to convert into utf-16 with dtds. here is the code: var filePath = Application.StartupPath; string[] filePaths = Directory.GetFiles(filePath *.xml); // get all the xml files from relative folder foreach (string xyz in filePaths) // Take each xml file from folder { string filepath = xyz; StreamReader fileStream = new StreamReader(filepath); string fileContent = fileStream.ReadToEnd(); fileStream.Close(); StreamWriter ansiWriter = new StreamWriter(filepath.Replace(.xml -unic.xml) false Encoding.Unicode); ansiWriter.Write(fileContent); ansiWriter.Close(); } Thanks for you support Jit

Vulpes · Answer

I imagine that these are custom entities defined in the DTD file. If you can look up what unicode characters they represent then you'd be better replacing them with those characters in the XML file before you try to load it and do the conversion. The multiplication sign is character 00d7 hex or 215 decimal. It's easy to do this programatically and they're a security risk in any case.

jit sun · Answer

Hi actually i tried like you(replaced with space) and it s working. is there any other solution to this problem? thanks allot Jitendra

Vulpes · Answer

Yeah the problem is that the utf-8 XML file won't even load because it contains two undefined entities: &SGV; &times; The second of these is an HTML entity for the multiplication sign but I have no idea what the first one is :-/ Anyway I removed the first one altogether and replaced the second one with 'x' and it then loaded and converted fine :)

jit sun · Answer

Hi it is giving me exception like Reference to undeclared entity 'SGV'. Line 24 position 95. at the code line var doc = XDocument.Load(utf8FilePath); Jitendra Sunkara

jit sun · Answer

hi Vulpes go through attachment.

jit sun · Answer

Hi Vulpes. here is my xml code.

Vulpes · Answer

Jitendra You've forgotten to attach the file. If you just post the declaration section that should be enough for me to figure out why it's not working.

jit sun · Answer

Hi vulpes thanks alot. it is working for some xml files. I try to load a some other xml files. But it is giving error. Please go through attachment and u will find my xml document. jitendra

jit sun · Answer

hi vulpes thanks alot. i have already an xml file on my desktop with utf-8 and i want to change it to utf-16. could you please write the source code. jitendra

Vulpes · Answer

It should be just a case of loading the utf-8 XML file into memory changing the declaration's encoding attribute to utf-16 and then resaving to a new file. Here's some very simple LINQ to XML code which shows how to do this: using System; using System.Xml.Linq; class Test { static void Main() { // create utf-8 file var doc = new XDocument(new XDeclaration(1.0 utf-8 yes) new XElement(test data)); doc.Save(my_utf8_file.xml); // reload doc = XDocument.Load(my_utf8_file.xml); // change encoding doc.Declaration.Encoding = utf-16; // resave to new file doc.Save(my_utf16_file.xml); } } The size of the file increased from 77 to 152 bytes as a result of this manoeuvre because of course utf-16 requires 2 bytes per character as opposed to one byte for characters in the ASCII range when utf-8 is used.