I'm trying to parse xml files from different sources (over which I have little control). Most of the them are encoded in UTF-8 and don't cause any problems using the following snippet:
SAXParserFactory factory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
SAXParser parser = factory.newSAXParser();
FeedHandler handler = new FeedHandler();
InputSource is = new InputSource(getInputStream());
parser.parse(is, handler);
Since SAX defaults to UTF-8 this is fine. However some of the documents declare:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
Even though ISO-8859-1 is declared SAX still defaults to UTF-8. Only if I add:
is.setEncoding("ISO-8859-1");
Will SAX use the correct encoding.
How can I let SAX automatically detect the correct encoding from the xml declaration without me specifically setting it? I need this because I don't know before hand what the encoding of the file will be.
Thanks in advance, Allan
Use InputStream as argument to InputSource when you want Sax to autodetect the encoding.
If you want to set a specific encoding, use Reader with a specified encoding or setEncoding method.
Why? Because autodetection encoding algorithms require raw data, not converted to characters.
The question in the subject is: How to let the SAX parser determine the encoding from the xml declaration? I found Allan's answer to the question misleading and I provided the alternative one, based on Jörn Horstmann's comment and my later experience.