VBMAN.ToolsUtf8 - UTF-8 Encoding/Decoding Object

Overview

VBMAN.ToolsUtf8 provides conversion functionality between UTF-8 encoding and VB strings/byte arrays, serving as the foundation tool for processing Chinese and international text.

Core Features

• Encoding Conversion: Convert between strings and UTF-8 byte arrays
• Socket Friendly: Directly process network transmission data
• Automatic BOM Handling: Automatically identify and skip UTF-8 BOM

Methods

Decode

Decode UTF-8 byte array to string

Public Function Decode(bytes() As Byte) As String

Parameters:

• bytes - UTF-8 encoded byte array

Returns: Decoded VB string

Example:

' Receive data from Socket and decode
Dim bytes() As Byte
Client.GetData bytes, vbArray

Dim text As String
text = VBMAN.ToolsUtf8.Decode(bytes)
Debug.Print text

Encode

Encode string to UTF-8 byte array

Public Function Encode(text As String) As Byte()

Parameters:

• text - String to encode

Returns: UTF-8 encoded byte array

Example:

' Encode string and send
Dim text As String
text = "Hello World"

Dim bytes() As Byte
bytes = VBMAN.ToolsUtf8.Encode(text)

Client.SendData bytes

Comprehensive Examples

Example 1: Socket Communication Encoding/Decoding (from cs-auther case)

' Get data from Socket and UTF-8 decode
Dim json As New cJson
Dim bytes() As Byte

Client.GetData bytes, vbArray
json.Decode VBMAN.ToolsUtf8.Decode(bytes)

' Process message...

Example 2: File Encoding Conversion

Private Sub ConvertToUtf8(sourcePath As String, destPath As String)
    ' Read source file (assumed to be ANSI)
    Dim fso As New Scripting.FileSystemObject
    Dim ts As TextStream
    Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile(sourcePath, ForReading, False, TristateFalse)
    
    Dim content As String
    content = ts.ReadAll
    ts.Close
    
    ' Convert to UTF-8 and save
    Dim bytes() As Byte
    bytes = VBMAN.ToolsUtf8.Encode(content)
    
    ' Save byte array
    Dim fileNum As Integer
    fileNum = FreeFile
    Open destPath For Binary As #fileNum
    Put #fileNum, , bytes
    Close #fileNum
End Sub

Example 3: HTTP Request Content Processing

Private Sub SendHttpPost(url As String, jsonData As String)
    ' Encode JSON data
    Dim postData() As Byte
    postData = VBMAN.ToolsUtf8.Encode(jsonData)
    
    ' Send HTTP request
    With VBMAN.HttpClient
        .Url = url
        .Method = "POST"
        .ContentType = "application/json; charset=utf-8"
        .Body = postData
        .Send
    End With
End Sub

Example 4: Console Output Chinese

Private Sub PrintToConsole(message As String)
    ' Convert Unicode string to UTF-8 byte array
    Dim bytes() As Byte
    bytes = VBMAN.ToolsUtf8.Encode(message)
    
    ' Output to console (requires API support)
    ' WriteConsole ...
End Sub

Best Practices

1. Network Communication: Use UTF-8 encoding uniformly when Socket transmits Chinese
2. File Exchange: Use UTF-8 encoding when exchanging files with other systems
3. Web Interaction: HTTP request/response Body usually uses UTF-8
4. Database Storage: If needing to store Chinese in byte form, use UTF-8