# Which encoding causes fewest problems in Ruby 1.8.2? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [June 11, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-encoding-causes-fewest-problems-in-ruby-1-8-2/95729 "2006-06-11T03:12:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/5fc32e/32.png) [@hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hozer)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-encoding-causes-fewest-problems-in-ruby-1-8-2/95729/1 "2006-06-11T03:12:31Z")
I posted a similar question in the rails group but this is more specific to ruby 1.8.2. I read that ruby has problems with multibyte charsets. And I read that there might be some problems with ISO-8859-15 related to REXML. And I read that regex might have problems with ISO-8859-1. Given the above problems (or rumors), which encoding is recommended for use with ruby 1.8.2? UTF-8 ISO-8859-1 ISO-8859-15 I’m certain both UTF-8 and ISO-8859-15 will support all the characters I’ll ever use. And ISO-8859-1 only lacks a couple characters I might use on very rare occassions so I’m just looking for a charset that will cause fewest problems with Ruby. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/5fc32e/32.png) [@hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hozer)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 12:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-encoding-causes-fewest-problems-in-ruby-1-8-2/95729/2 "2006-06-11T12:58:36Z")
On 6/11/06, Jim S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I posted a similar question in the rails group but this is more specific > to ruby 1.8.2. > > I read that ruby has problems with multibyte charsets. And I read that > there might be some problems with ISO-8859-15 related to REXML. And I > read that regex might have problems with ISO-8859-1. > > Given the above problems (or rumors), which encoding is recommended for > use with ruby 1.8.2? None. They all cause problems. With utf-8 most string functions won’t work correctly (probably including regexps). There are special extensions to work around this to some extent. ISO-8858-1 and ISO-8859-15 should be pretty much the same. They are simple 8-bit so the string functions that expect 1-byte characters work. They won’t allow you to use slightly more exotic characters (like greek letters for maths, …). ---
**Author:** ![hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/5fc32e/32.png) [@hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hozer)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 5:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-encoding-causes-fewest-problems-in-ruby-1-8-2/95729/3 "2006-06-12T05:17:11Z")
On 6/11/06, Yukihiro M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > |ISO-8859-15 > > String and Regexp handles all of them for most of the cases. But > upper/lower case handling for non ASCII alphabets are not supported. > Use -Ku for UTF-8 and -Kn for ISO-8859-\*. Length and indexing do not work very well with utf-8. ~ $ irb -Ku irb(main):001:0\> $KCODE =\> “UTF8” irb(main):002:0\> a=‘α-Ï?’ =\> “α-Ï?” irb(main):003:0\> r=/[β-Ï?]/ =\> /[β-Ï?]/ irb(main):004:0\> a.length =\> 5 irb(main):005:0\> a[0…0] =\> “\316” irb(main):006:0\> a[0…1] =\> “α” Fortunately, the regexps work. irb(main):007:0\> a =~ r =\> 3 So you could use a.scan /./ to calculate length or index characters in a string. irb(main):008:0\> a.scan /./ =\> [“α”, “-”, “Ï?”] irb(main):009:0\> (a.scan /./).length =\> 3 Michal ---
**Author:** ![hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/5fc32e/32.png) [@hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hozer)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-encoding-causes-fewest-problems-in-ruby-1-8-2/95729/4 "2006-06-11T14:14:40Z")
Hi, In message “Re: Which encoding causes fewest problems in Ruby 1.8.2?” on Sun, 11 Jun 2006 10:12:45 +0900, Jim S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes: |Given the above problems (or rumors), which encoding is recommended for |use with ruby 1.8.2? | |UTF-8 |ISO-8859-1 |ISO-8859-15 String and Regexp handles all of them for most of the cases. But upper/lower case handling for non ASCII alphabets are not supported. Use -Ku for UTF-8 and -Kn for ISO-8859-\*. ``` matz. ``` ---
**Author:** ![hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/5fc32e/32.png) [@hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hozer)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-encoding-causes-fewest-problems-in-ruby-1-8-2/95729/5 "2006-06-12T14:35:23Z")
On 6/12/06, Yukihiro M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Hi, > > In message “Re: Which encoding causes fewest problems in Ruby 1.8.2?” > on Mon, 12 Jun 2006 12:14:48 +0900, “Michal S.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes: > > |Length and indexing do not work very well with utf-8. > > I know. Operations on characters should based on Regexp. I am sure you do know 🙂 But it is not what I call ‘String handles them all most of the cases’. Thanks Michal ---
**Author:** ![hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/5fc32e/32.png) [@hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hozer)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 7:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-encoding-causes-fewest-problems-in-ruby-1-8-2/95729/6 "2006-06-12T07:39:39Z")
Hi, In message “Re: Which encoding causes fewest problems in Ruby 1.8.2?” on Mon, 12 Jun 2006 12:14:48 +0900, “Michal S.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes: |Length and indexing do not work very well with utf-8. I know. Operations on characters should based on Regexp. ``` matz. ``` ---
**Author:** ![hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/5fc32e/32.png) [@hozer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hozer)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/which-encoding-causes-fewest-problems-in-ruby-1-8-2/95729/7 "2006-06-12T16:29:10Z")
Hi, In message “Re: Which encoding causes fewest problems in Ruby 1.8.2?” on Mon, 12 Jun 2006 21:33:10 +0900, “Michal S.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes: |\> I know. Operations on characters should based on Regexp. |But it is not what I call ‘String handles them all most of the cases’. OK, then I’d say 'string handles them all most of the case if your operations are based on Regexp". 😉 ``` matz. ```