How do I get Delphi 2006 TStringList.LoadFromFile to load UTF-16 files

Question

I have a Delphi 2006 app that I am adding code to process some generated CSV data files. TStringList.LoadFromFile was giving strange results and I have just worked out the files are UTF-16 encoded.

Upgrading to XE is planned but not an option at the moment.

What's the simplest route to handle these files with D2006? I'm assuming they can be mapped to 8-bit ASCII without any issues - they are "pure" CSV - just digits and commas, etc. and I don't think there will be any issues with characters that are not in the 8-bit set.

Answer 1

TStringList does not support UTF-16 in D2006, so you will have to load and decode the file data manually before then putting the output into your TStringList . For example:

var
  sl: TStringList;
  {$IFNDEF D2009_OR_LATER}
  ms: TMemoryStream;
  ptr: PWideChar;
  s: AnsiString;
  dlen, slen: Integer;
  {$ENDIF}
begin
  ...
  {$IFDEF D2009_OR_LATER}
  sl.LoadFromFile('...', TEncoding.Unicode);
  {$ELSE}
  ms := TMemoryStream.Create;
  try
    ms.LoadFromFile('...');
    ptr := PWideChar(ms.Memory);
    dlen := ms.Size div SizeOf(WideChar);
    if (dlen >= 1) and (PWord(ptr)^ = $FEFF) then
    begin
      Inc(ptr);
      Dec(dlen);
    end;
    slen := WideCharToMultiByte(0, 0, ptr, dlen, nil, 0, nil, nil);
    if slen > 0 then begin
      SetLength(s, slen);
      WideCharToMultiByte(0, 0, ptr, dlen, PAnsiChar(s), slen, nil, nil));
    end;
    sl.Text := s;
  finally
    ms.Free;
  end;
  {$ENDIF}
  ...
end;

Answer 2

Just in case there was some risk of data loss, you could try to use the JCL TJclWideStringList.