This
package contains classes that
represent character sets or
encodings, and defines
methods that encode characters into bytes and decode bytes into
characters. The key class is Charset, and you can
obtain a Charset object for a named character
encoding with the static forName( ) method.
Charset defines encode( ) and
decode( ) convenience methods, but for full
control over the encoding and decoding process, you can also obtain a
CharsetEncoder or
CharsetDecoder object from the
Charset.
The Java platform has had a character encoding and decoding facility
since Java 1.1, and defines a number of classes and methods that
perform character encoding or decoding. Some of these classes and
methods are specified to use the default charset for the locale;
others take the name of a charset as a method or constructor
argument. See, for example, the String( ),
java.io.InputStreamReader( ) and
java.io.OutputStreamWriter( ) constructors. In
Java 1.4, the java.nio.charset package defines a
public API to the character encoding and decoding facility and allows
applications to work with it explicitly. Most applications will not
have to do this, however, and can simply continue to rely on the
default charset, or can continue to supply charset names where
needed. Even applications that use the
java.nio.channels
package can avoid
explicit character encoding and decoding by passing the name of a
desired charset to the newReader(
) and newWriter( )
methods of java.nio.channels.Channels.
Classes
public abstract class Charset implements Comparable<Charset>;
public abstract class CharsetDecoder;
public abstract class CharsetEncoder;
public class CoderResult;
public class CodingErrorAction;
Exceptions
public class CharacterCodingException extends java.io.IOException;
public class MalformedInputException extends CharacterCodingException;
public class UnmappableCharacterException extends CharacterCodingException;
public class IllegalCharsetNameException extends IllegalArgumentException;
public class UnsupportedCharsetException extends IllegalArgumentException;
Errors
public class CoderMalfunctionError extends Error;
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