UnicodeToUtf8 (Unicode function)

Translate to UTF-8 (Unicode class)

This function converts a Unicode string to a UTF-8 Longstring byte stream.

The UnicodeToUtf8 function is available as of version 7.3 of the Sirius Mods.

Syntax

  %utf8Stream = unicode:UnicodeToUtf8([InsertBOM=bool])])

Syntax terms

%utf8Stream

A String or Longstring variable to receive the method object string translated to a UTF-8 byte stream.

unicode

A Unicode string.

InsertBOM=bool

The optional (name required) InsertBOM argument is a Boolean:

• If its value is True, the "Byte Order Mark" (U+FEFF, encoded as X'EFBBBF') is inserted at the start of the output stream.
• If its value is False, the default, no Byte Order Mark is inserted.

Exceptions

This function can throw the following exception:

CharacterTranslationException

If the method encounters a translation problem, properties of the exception object may indicate the location and type of problem. See CharacterTranslationException exception class.

Usage notes

• For more information about UTF-8 conversions, see Unicode#UTF-8 and UTF-16.
• The UnicodeToUtf16 method converts a Unicode string to UTF-16.
• The Utf8ToUnicode method converts a UTF-8 Longstring byte stream to Unicode.

Examples

In the following fragment, UnicodeToUtf8 is used to show how the Unicode U+B2 character (superscript 2) is represented in UTF-8. Appending the StringToHex method is useful for viewing the hex values of characters that do not have displayable EBCDIC equivalents.

The U constant function and StringToHex function are used in the example.

    %u Unicode Initial('²':U)
    Print %u:UnicodeToUtf8:StringToHex

The result is:

    C2B2