TextDecoder

The TextDecoder interface represents a decoder for a specific method, that is a specific character encoding, like utf-8, iso-8859-2, koi8, cp1261, gbk, etc. A decoder takes a stream of bytes as input and emits a stream of code points. For a more scalable, non-native library, see StringView – a C-like representation of strings based on typed arrays.

Example

let win1251decoder = new TextDecoder('windows-1251');
let bytes = new Uint8Array([207, 240, 232, 226, 229, 242, 44, 32, 236, 232, 240, 33]);
console.log(win1251decoder.decode(bytes)); // Привет, мир!

Constructor

TextDecoder()

Returns a newly constructed TextDecoder that will generate a code point stream with the decoding method specified in parameters.

Properties

The TextDecoder interface doesn't inherit any properties.

TextDecoder.encoding Read only

Is a DOMString containing the name of the decoder, that is a string describing the method the TextDecoder will use.

TextDecoder.fatal Read only

Is a Boolean indicating whether the error mode is fatal.

TextDecoder.ignoreBOM Read only

Is a Boolean indicating whether the byte order marker is ignored.

Methods

The TextDecoder interface doesn't inherit any method.

TextDecoder.decode()

Returns a DOMString containing the text decoded with the method of the specific TextDecoder object.

Specifications

Browser compatibility

[1] An earlier, and slightly different, version of the specification was implemented in Firefox 18.

See also

• The TextEncoder interface describing the inverse operation.
• StringView – a C-like representation of strings based on typed arrays
• A shim allowing to use this interface in browsers that don't support it.
• Components.utils.importGlobalProperties