From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2010-01-18T04:30:11+09:00
Subject: Re: Strange Encoding Behavior

On 01/17/2010 04:55 AM, Lui Kore wrote:
> The encoding of __FILE__ is always the same as Encoding.default_external
> even if there is a magic column. Sometimes it is necessary to convert
> the string into another encoding. Here is some code to demonstrate the
> issue:
> 
> #coding: utf-8
>     # put the script in a not-pure-ascii path to see the difference
>     path = File.expand_path File.dirname __FILE__
> 
>     puts RUBY_VERSION + ' ' + RUBY_PLATFORM
>       #=> "1.9.1 i386-mingw32" is my ruby version
>     puts path.encoding
>       #=> "GB2312" on my OS
> 
>     # usually this "string.encode to, from" works,
>     # but HERE the new string's content bytes seems unchanged
>     puts \
>       path.encode 'utf-8', Encoding.default_external
> 
>     path.force_encoding Encoding.default_external
>     puts path.encode 'utf-8'
>       # changed at last

I believe the point you are missing is that String#encode does not 
change the String but it returns a new String with the desired encoding. 
  If you want inplace modification you need to use String#encode! which 
does just that.

irb(main):006:0> s="foo"
=> "foo"
irb(main):007:0> s.encoding
=> #<Encoding:UTF-8>
irb(main):008:0> x = s.encode "ASCII"
=> "foo"
irb(main):009:0> s.encoding
=> #<Encoding:UTF-8>
irb(main):010:0> x.encoding
=> #<Encoding:US-ASCII>
irb(main):011:0>


Kind regards

	robert

-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/