# How to convert the charset of texts in a Execl which has multi-language text and charset? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [September 15, 2008, 10:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-the-charset-of-texts-in-a-execl-which-has-multi-language-text-and-charset/148589 "2008-09-15T10:56:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wu\_Nan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/898d66/32.png) [@Wu\_Nan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Wu_Nan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 10:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-the-charset-of-texts-in-a-execl-which-has-multi-language-text-and-charset/148589/1 "2008-09-15T10:56:58Z")
Hello all, I want to use Ruby to read a excel file’s content and convert them in to UTF-8. However, in that file there are many different language texts, such as Greek, Japanese, Korea, Russia and so on. So I use Iconv to convert the them into UTF-8. I searched the internet, some article said the default charset of Excel is UTF-16LE. So I use the codes below: Iconv.conv(“UTF-8”,“UTF-16”,$excel.Cells(row,col).value.to\_s) ## And the contents in excel are(each line is a cell) (Please wait) (Veuillez attendre) (Bitte warten) (Espere un momento) (Attendere, prego) (Even geduld aub) (Ждите) (Aguarde) (ìž ì‹œë§Œ ê¸°ë‹¤ë ¤ì£¼ì‹­ì‹œì˜¤) * * * After I run it, I get a Error: in `conv’: “)” (Iconv::InvalidCharacter) It seems that the in UTF-16, the ( is not ‘(’??? Then I changed the ‘UTF-16’ in to ‘GB2312’(the default charset of my system),but it cannot convert the Koean character correctly. All the Koean characters became ??? I use Ruby 1.8.6 on WinXP Sp3. How could I resolve it ? Many thanks, Nan ---
**Author:** ![Wu\_Nan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/898d66/32.png) [@Wu\_Nan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Wu_Nan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 11:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-the-charset-of-texts-in-a-execl-which-has-multi-language-text-and-charset/148589/2 "2008-09-15T11:23:59Z")
-------- Original-Nachricht -------- > Datum: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:49:15 +0900 > Von: “Wu Nan” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > An: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > Betreff: How to convert the charset of texts in a Execl which has multi-language text and charset? > (Ждите) > system),but it cannot convert the Koean character correctly. All the Koean > characters became ??? > > I use Ruby 1.8.6 on WinXP Sp3. > > How could I resolve it ? > > Many thanks, > > Nan Dear Nan, after some searching, I found that there is a special encoding for Korean characters, EUC-KR. I managed to convert your Korean text from UTF-8 to EUC-KR, write it to a file and display it correctly in Firefox, once the right encoding is set in the Preferences (EUC-KR in this case, but I can also display Korean text in UTF-8.) So I think you’ll be successful by making sure you convert from EUC-KR to UTF-8 for the Korean, and to UTF-8 for everything else. Best regards, Axel ---
**Author:** ![Wu\_Nan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/898d66/32.png) [@Wu\_Nan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Wu_Nan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 11:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-the-charset-of-texts-in-a-execl-which-has-multi-language-text-and-charset/148589/3 "2008-09-15T11:58:06Z")
Hello Axel, Many thanks for your answer, I just test it again, I dump the original text, and display them in integer. I found that all the Korean Char became ‘???’ as soon as them were read out from the Excel. I attached the test codes and test excel file. In the excel file there is only 1 text. Do you have any idea about the reason? 2008/9/15 Axel E. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![Wu\_Nan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/898d66/32.png) [@Wu\_Nan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Wu_Nan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-the-charset-of-texts-in-a-execl-which-has-multi-language-text-and-charset/148589/4 "2008-09-15T12:51:27Z")
-------- Original-Nachricht -------- > Datum: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:50:03 +0900 > Von: “Wu Nan” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > An: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > Betreff: Re: How to convert the charset of texts in a Execl which has multi-language text and charset? > only 1 text. > > Do you have any idea about the reason? Dear Nan, right now, I am not on Windows, so in order to check whether the problem is with Windows or with Ruby, I’d suggest you try the following (which works on Ubuntu with your data). Gem-install parseexcel ([http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/parseexcel/](http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/parseexcel/)) Check what the following script gives on your test.xls file (shamelessly adapted from the website mentioned above). require “rubygems” require ‘parseexcel’ require “iconv” # your first step is always reading in the file. # that gives you a workbook-object, which has one or more worksheets, # just like in Excel you have the possibility of multiple worksheets. workbook = Spreadsheet::ParseExcel.parse(“/home/axel/Desktop/test.xls”) # usually, you want the first worksheet: worksheet = workbook.worksheet(0) p worksheet # now you can either iterate over all rows, skipping the first number of # rows (in case you know they just contain column headers) skip = 0 worksheet.each(skip) { |row| # a row is actually just an Array of Cells… first\_cell = row.at(0) p ‘first’ p first\_cell # how you get data out of the cell depends on what datatype you # expect: # if you expect a String, you can pass an encoding and (iconv # required) the content of the cell will be converted. str = row.at(0).to\_s(‘EUC-KR’) p str f=File.open(“textexcel.html”,“w”) f.puts str f.close } I could open the file textexcel.html with correctly displayable Korean characters (now in EUC-KR, but you can convert these to UTF-8, at least in Ubuntu. Best regards, Axel ---
**Author:** ![Wu\_Nan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/898d66/32.png) [@Wu\_Nan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Wu_Nan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 1:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-the-charset-of-texts-in-a-execl-which-has-multi-language-text-and-charset/148589/5 "2008-09-15T13:52:09Z")
Hello Axel, Thank you very much. I’ll try it. BR Nan 2008/9/15, Axel E. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):