Convert a file encoding using R? (ANSI to UTF-8)

Question

I wish to convert an HTML file encoded in ANSI to UTF-8, using R.

Is there a tool, or a combination of tools, that can make this work?

Thanks.

Answer 1

you can use iconv:

writeLines(iconv(readLines("tmp.html"), from = "ANSI_X3.4-1986", to = "UTF8"), "tmp2.html")

tmp2.html should be utf-8.

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Edit by Henrik in June 2015:
A working solution for Windows distilled from the comments is as follows:

writeLines(iconv(readLines("tmp.html"), from = "ANSI_X3.4-1986", to = "UTF8"), 
           file("tmp2.html", encoding="UTF-8"))

Answer 2

I had some problems with the solutions proposed above, especially with the TAB character. This alternative never disappointed me. Unfortunately it only works on UNIX-like systems.

system('iconv -f CP1252 -t UTF-8 < tmp.html > tmp2.html')