Unicode::MapUTF8(3)

NAME
Unicode::MapUTF8 - Conversions to and from arbitrary character sets and UTF8

SYNOPSIS
 use Unicode::MapUTF8 qw(to_utf8 from_utf8 utf8_supported_charset);

 # Convert a string in 'ISO-8859-1' to 'UTF8'
 my $output = to_utf8({ -string => 'An example', -charset => 'ISO-8859-1' });

 # Convert a string in 'UTF8' encoding to encoding 'ISO-8859-1'
 my $other  = from_utf8({ -string => 'Other text', -charset => 'ISO-8859-1' });

 # List available character set encodings
 my @character_sets = utf8_supported_charset;

 # Add a character set alias
 utf8_charset_alias({ 'ms-japanese' => 'sjis' });

 # Convert between two arbitrary (but largely compatible) charset encodings
 # (SJIS to EUC-JP)
 my $utf8_string   = to_utf8({ -string =>$sjis_string, -charset => 'sjis'});
 my $euc_jp_string = from_utf8({ -string => $utf8_string, -charset => 'euc-jp' })

 # Verify that a specific character set is supported
 if (utf8_supported_charset('ISO-8859-1') {
     # Yes
 }

DESCRIPTION
Provides an adapter layer between core routines for converting to and from UTF8 and other encodings. In essence, a way to give multiple existing Unicode modules a single common interface so you don't have to know the underlaying implementations to do simple UTF8 to-from other character set encoding conversions. As such, it wraps the Unicode::String, Unicode::Map8, Unicode::Map and Jcode modules in a standardized and simple API.

This also provides general character set conversion operation based on UTF8 - it is possible to convert between any two compatible and supported character sets via a simple two step chaining of conversions.

As with most things Perlish - if you give it a few big chunks of text to chew on instead of lots of small ones it will handle many more characters per second.

By design, it can be easily extended to encompass any new charset encoding conversion modules that arrive on the scene.

This module is intended to provide good Unicode support to versions of Perl prior to 5.8. If you are using Perl 5.8.0 or later, you probably want to be using the Encode module instead. This module does work with Perl 5.8, but Encode is the preferred method in that environment.

CHANGES
1.14 2020.09.27 Fixing POD breakage in EUC-JP version of POD

1.13 2020.09.27 Fixing MANIFEST.SKIP error

1.12 2020.09.27 Build tool updates. Maintainer updates. POD error fixes.
                  Relicensed under MIT license.

1.11 2005.10.10 Documentation changes. Addition of Build.PL support.
                  Added various build tests, LICENSE, Artistic_License.txt,
                  GPL_License.txt. Split documentation into seperate
                  .pod file. Added Japanese translation of POD.

1.10 2005.05.22 - Fixed bug in conversion of ISO-2022-JP to UTF-8.
                  Problem and fix found by Masahiro HONMA
                  <masahiro.honma@tsutaya.co.jp>.

                  Similar bugs in conversions of shift_jis and euc-jp
                  to UTF-8 corrected as well.

1.09 2001.08.22 - Fixed multiple typo occurances of 'uft'
                  where 'utf' was meant in code. Problem affected
                  utf16 and utf7 encodings. Problem found
                  by devon smith <devon@taller.PSCL.cwru.edu>

1.08 2000.11.06 Added 'utf8_charset_alias' function to allow for runtime
                setting of character set aliases. Added several alternate
                names for 'sjis' (shiftjis, shift-jis, shift_jis, s-jis,
                and s_jis).

                Corrected 'croak' messages for 'from_utf8' functions to
                appropriate function name.

                Corrected fatal problem in jcode-unicode internals. Problem
                and fix found by Brian Wisti <wbrian2@uswest.net>.

1.07 2000.11.01 Added 'croak' to use Carp declaration to fix error
                messages. Problem and fix found by <wbrian2@uswest.net>.

1.06 2000.10.30 Fix to handle change in stringification of overloaded
                objects between Perl 5.005 and 5.6.
                Problem noticed by Brian Wisti <wbrian2@uswest.net>.

1.05 2000.10.23 Error in conversions from UTF8 to multibyte encodings corrected

1.04 2000.10.23 Additional diagnostic error messages added for
                internal errors

1.03 2000.10.22 Bug fix for load time Unicode::Map encoding
                detection

1.02 2000.10.22 Bug fix to 'from_utf8' method and load time
                detection of Unicode::Map8 supported character
                set encodings

1.01 2000.10.02 Initial public release

FUNCTIONS

utf8_charset_alias({ $alias => $charset });
    Used for runtime assignment of character set aliases.

    Called with no parameters, returns a hash of defined aliases and the character sets they map to.

    Example:

      my $aliases     = utf8_charset_alias;
      my @alias_names = keys %$aliases;

    If called with ONE parameter, returns the name of the 'real' charset if the alias is defined. Returns undef if it is not found in the aliases.

    Example:

        if (! utf8_charset_alias('VISCII')) {
            # No alias for this
        }

    If called with a list of 'alias' => 'charset' pairs, defines those aliases for use.

    Example:

        utf8_charset_alias({ 'japanese' => 'sjis', 'japan' => 'sjis' });

    Note: It will croak if a passed pair does not map to a character set defined in the predefined set of character encoding. It is NOT allowed to alias something to another alias.

    Multiple character set aliases can be set with a single call.

    To clear an alias, pass a character set mapping of undef.

    Example:

        utf8_charset_alias({ 'japanese' => undef });

    While an alias is set, the 'utf8_supported_charset' function will return the alias as if it were a predefined charset.

    Overriding a base defined character encoding with an alias will generate a warning message to STDERR.

utf8_supported_charset($charset_name);
    Returns true if the named charset is supported (including user defined aliases).

    Returns false if it is not.

    Example:

        if (! utf8_supported_charset('VISCII')) {
            # No support yet
        }

    If called in a list context with no parameters, it will return a list of all supported character set names (including user defined aliases).

    Example:

        my @charsets = utf8_supported_charset;

to_utf8({ -string => $string, -charset => $source_charset });
    Returns the string converted to UTF8 from the specified source charset.

from_utf8({ -string => $string, -charset => $target_charset});
    Returns the string converted from UTF8 to the specified target charset.

VERSION
1.14 2020.09.27

TODO
Regression tests for Jcode, 2-byte encodings and encoding aliases

SEE ALSO
Unicode::String Unicode::Map8 Unicode::Map Jcode Encode

COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2000-2020, Jerilyn Franz. All rights reserved.

AUTHOR
Jerilyn Franz <cpan@jerilyn.info>

LICENSE
MIT License

Copyright (c) 2020 Jerilyn Franz

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.