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

%string = unicode:UnicodeToUtf8[( [InsertBOM= boolean])]

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