Character Encodings
This page documents the character encodings supported by the tailor.iconv API in the Function service. Understanding these encodings is essential for handling text data conversion between different character sets, especially when working with Japanese, Chinese, and Korean text.
Overview
The Function service provides comprehensive character encoding conversion capabilities through the tailor.iconv API. This includes support for over 100 character encodings, with special focus on Japanese business systems and enterprise environments.
Unicode
Encoding Name Aliases Description Character Types UTF-8 UTF8 Unicode (UTF-8) Full-width/half-width alphanumeric, kana, kanji, symbols UTF-16 UTF16 Unicode (UTF-16) Full-width/half-width alphanumeric, kana, kanji, symbols UTF-16BE - Unicode (UTF-16 Big Endian) Full-width/half-width alphanumeric, kana, kanji, symbols UTF-16LE - Unicode (UTF-16 Little Endian) Full-width/half-width alphanumeric, kana, kanji, symbols
Japanese Character Encodings
Shift_JIS Family Encodings
Encoding Name Aliases Description Character Types Shift_JIS SHIFT_JIS, SJIS Shift JIS code Half-width alphanumeric, half-width katakana, full-width kana, JIS Level 1 & 2 kanji SJIS - Shift_JIS alias Half-width alphanumeric, half-width katakana, full-width kana, JIS Level 1 & 2 kanji CP932 Windows-31J, MS932 Microsoft extended Shift_JIS Half-width alphanumeric, half-width katakana, full-width kana, JIS Level 1 & 2 kanji, NEC special characters, IBM extended characters
EUC-JP Family Encodings
Encoding Name Aliases Description Character Types EUC-JP EUCJP, eucJP Japanese EUC code Half-width alphanumeric, full-width kana, JIS Level 1 & 2 kanji EUC-JP-MS eucJP-ms Microsoft extended EUC-JP Half-width alphanumeric, full-width kana, JIS Level 1 & 2 kanji, NEC special characters, IBM extended characters
ISO-2022 Family Encodings
Encoding Name Aliases Description Character Types ISO-2022-JP ISO2022JP, JIS JIS code (7-bit) ASCII, JIS Roman, half-width katakana, JIS Level 1 & 2 kanji
Enterprise System Encodings
IBM EBCDIC Japanese Encodings
Encoding Name Aliases Description Character Types IBM037 EBCDIC-CP-US, CP037 EBCDIC US/Canada Alphanumeric IBM290 EBCDIC-JP-KANA, CP290 Japanese EBCDIC katakana Alphanumeric, katakana IBM930 CP930 Japanese EBCDIC (kanji) Alphanumeric, katakana, hiragana, JIS Level 1 & 2 kanji IBM939 CP939 Japanese EBCDIC extended Alphanumeric, katakana, hiragana, JIS Level 1 & 2 kanji, extended characters IBM943 CP943 Japanese PC code Half-width alphanumeric, half-width katakana, full-width kana, JIS Level 1 & 2 kanji EBCDIC-JP-E - Japanese EBCDIC alphanumeric katakana Alphanumeric, katakana EBCDIC-JP-KANA - Japanese EBCDIC katakana Alphanumeric, katakana
Enterprise System Aliases
Alias Name Actual Encoding Description Character Types HitachiKEIS83 IBM290 Hitachi KEIS83 compatible Alphanumeric, katakana HitachiKEIS90 IBM290 Hitachi KEIS90 compatible Alphanumeric, katakana NECJIPS IBM290 NEC JIPS compatible Alphanumeric, katakana NECJIS IBM290 NEC JIS compatible Alphanumeric, katakana
Suffix characters are ignored in enterprise system aliases.
Chinese Encodings
Encoding Name Aliases Description Character Types GB2312 EUC-CN Simplified Chinese (basic) ASCII, simplified Chinese GBK CP936 Simplified Chinese (extended) ASCII, simplified Chinese (extended) GB18030 - Simplified Chinese (complete) ASCII, simplified Chinese (all characters) Big5 BIG5 Traditional Chinese ASCII, traditional Chinese BIG5HKSCS Big5-HKSCS Hong Kong extended traditional Chinese ASCII, traditional Chinese, Hong Kong additional characters
Korean Encodings
Encoding Name Aliases Description Character Types EUC-KR EUCKR Korean EUC ASCII, Korean UHC CP949 Unified Hangul Code ASCII, Korean (extended) JOHAB - Combinatorial Hangul ASCII, Korean (combinatorial) ISO-2022-KR ISO2022KR Korean ISO-2022 ASCII, Korean characters
Other Languages
Encoding Name Aliases Description Character Types ISO-8859-1 Latin-1 Western European ASCII, Western European characters ASCII US-ASCII American Standard Code Basic ASCII characters (0-127)
API Usage Examples
Basic Conversion
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// UTF-8 to Shift_JIS conversion</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">sjisData</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">tailor</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">iconv</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.convert</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">(</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"日本語テキスト"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"UTF-8"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"Shift_JIS"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">);</span></span>
<span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// EUC-JP to UTF-8 conversion</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">utf8Text</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">tailor</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">iconv</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.convert</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">(eucjpData</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"EUC-JP"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"UTF-8"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">);</span></span>
<span></span>Using Enterprise Aliases
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// HitachiKEIS83 (actually IBM290) conversion</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">keisData</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">tailor</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">iconv</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.convert</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">(</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"カタカナ"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"UTF-8"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"HitachiKEIS83"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">);</span></span>
<span></span>Custom Replacement Characters
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Replace unconvertible characters with asterisk</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">asciiText</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">tailor</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">iconv</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.convert</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">(</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"Hello 世界!"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"UTF-8"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"ASCII//TRANSLIT:*"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">);</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Result: "Hello **!"</span></span>
<span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Custom string replacement</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">asciiText2</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">tailor</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">iconv</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.convert</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">(</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"Test 日本語"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"UTF-8"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"ASCII//TRANSLIT:[?]"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">);</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Result: "Test [?][?][?]"</span></span>
<span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Underscore replacement</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">asciiText3</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">tailor</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">iconv</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.convert</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">(</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"abc世界xyz"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"UTF-8"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"ASCII//TRANSLIT:_"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">);</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Result: "abc__xyz"</span></span>
<span></span>TRANSLIT with Special Characters
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Convert special characters using TRANSLIT</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">specialText</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"abc ß α € àḃç"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">;</span></span>
<span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Default TRANSLIT (uses ? for unconvertible characters)</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">result1</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">tailor</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">iconv</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.convert</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">(specialText</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"UTF-8"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"ASCII//TRANSLIT"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">);</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Result: "abc ? ? ? ???"</span></span>
<span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Custom replacement with asterisk</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">result2</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">tailor</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">iconv</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.convert</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">(specialText</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"UTF-8"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"ASCII//TRANSLIT:*"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">);</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Result: "abc * * * ***"</span></span>
<span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Custom replacement with underscore</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">result3</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">tailor</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">iconv</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.convert</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">(specialText</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"UTF-8"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-punctuation)">,</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">"ASCII//TRANSLIT:_"</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">);</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Result: "abc _ _ _ ___"</span></span>
<span></span>Checking Available Encodings
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-comment)">// Get all Japanese-related encodings</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">allEncodings</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">tailor</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">iconv</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.encodings</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">();</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">const</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">jpEncodings</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">allEncodings</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.filter</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">(enc </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">=></span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)"> </span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-constant)">enc</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-function)">.match</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">(</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">/JP</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">|</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">JIS</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">|</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">Shift</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">|</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">KEIS</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">|</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">93[029]</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">|</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">94[39]</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">|</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">EBCDIC.</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">*</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-string-expression)">JP/</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-token-keyword)">i</span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">)</span></span>
<span><span style="color: var(--shiki-color-text)">);</span></span>
<span></span>Error Handling
The tailor.iconv API supports special flags for handling characters that cannot be converted:
//IGNORE : Silently ignores characters that cannot be converted//TRANSLIT : Attempts to transliterate characters to similar ones in target encoding (default replacement: ?)//TRANSLIT:char : Custom replacement character extension
Example: ASCII//TRANSLIT:* replaces unconvertible characters with *
Example: ASCII//TRANSLIT:[?] replaces unconvertible characters with [?]
Best Practices
Encoding Selection
For text with kanji: Use UTF-8, Shift_JIS, EUC-JP, or IBM930/939
For katakana-only text: IBM290 is also available
For email transmission: ISO-2022-JP is recommended
Preventing Character Corruption
Use the same encoding for both sender and receiver
Specify the source encoding accurately
Error Handling
Use //IGNORE to skip unconvertible characters
Use //TRANSLIT for character substitution
Use custom replacement characters for specific requirements