Convert UTF-8 to ANSI

Question

I am trying to convert UTF-8 to ANSI files. With little bit of knowledge and help of Google I found one line to convert SINGLE file

Get-Content C:\Output2\PA01.094 | Set-Content C:\Output\PA01094 -Encoding Ascii

Now I want to convert all UTF-8 files in a folder to another folder without changing filename.

Answer 1

The following will read all files in $sourceFolder and re-create them under $destFolder encoded as ASCII.

$sourceFolder = "c:\temp\src"
$destFolder = "c:\temp\dst"

Get-ChildItem -Path $sourceFolder | 
    foreach-object {
        get-content $_ | Set-content -Path ( Join-Path $destFolder $_.Name ) -Encoding ASCII
    }

NB This code DOES NOT verify the encoding of the original file.

Answer 2

You could use code like below. Modify Get-ChildItem as required to specify files you need.

$sourcePath = "C:\source"
$destinationPath = "C:\output"
if (!(Test-Path $destinationPath))
{
    New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $destinationPath
}
Get-ChildItem -Path $sourcePath -File | ForEach-Object {
 Write-Host "Converting $_" 
 $content = Get-Content $_.FullName
 Set-content (Join-Path -Path $destinationPath -ChildPath $_) -Encoding Ascii -Value $content
}

ASCII encoding cannot handle all characters that UTF8 or other Unicode encodings can handle, character that can't be translated may result in ? in output file.

To check encoding of output you can use PowerShell.

For example for a text file created in Notepad that says "Hello, World!"

The following encodings will produce these results. Note start of UTF-8 has special characters, these indicate file is UTF-8, not the default Save format in Notepad.

PS C:\support> [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("C:\support\helloworld_ansi.txt")
    72
    101
    108
    108
    111
    44
    32
    87
    111
    114
    108
    100
    33
    PS C:\support> [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("C:\support\helloworld_unicode.txt")
    255
    254
    72
    0
    101
    0
    108
    0
    108
    0
    111
    0
    44
    0
    32
    0
    87
    0
    111
    0
    114
    0
    108
    0
    100
    0
    33
    0
    PS C:\support> [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("C:\support\helloworld_utf8.txt")
    239
    187
    191
    72
    101
    108
    108
    111
    44
    32
    87
    111
    114
    108
    100
    33
    PS C:\support>