VB6/VBScript change file encoding to ansi

Question

I am looking for a way to convert a textfile with UTF8 encoding to ANSI encoding.

How can i go around and achieve this in Visual Basic (VB6) and or vbscript?

Answer 1

I'm using these helper functions

Private Function pvReadFile(sFile)
    Const ForReading = 1
    Dim sPrefix

    With CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
        sPrefix = .OpenTextFile(sFile, ForReading, False, False).Read(3)
    End With
    If Left(sPrefix, 3) <> Chr(&HEF) & Chr(&HBB) & Chr(&HBF) Then
        With CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
            pvReadFile = .OpenTextFile(sFile, ForReading, False, Left(sPrefix, 2) = Chr(&HFF) & Chr(&HFE)).ReadAll()
        End With
    Else
        With CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
            .Open
            If Left(sPrefix, 2) = Chr(&HFF) & Chr(&HFE) Then
                .Charset = "Unicode"
            ElseIf Left(sPrefix, 3) = Chr(&HEF) & Chr(&HBB) & Chr(&HBF) Then
                .Charset = "UTF-8"
            Else
                .Charset = "_autodetect"
            End If
            .LoadFromFile sFile
            pvReadFile = .ReadText
        End With
    End If
End Function

Private Function pvWriteFile(sFile, sText, lType)
    Const adSaveCreateOverWrite = 2

    With CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
        .Open
        If lType = 2 Then
            .Charset = "Unicode"
        ElseIf lType = 3 Then
            .Charset = "UTF-8"
        Else
            .Charset = "_autodetect"
        End If
        .WriteText sText
        .SaveToFile sFile, adSaveCreateOverWrite
    End With
End Function

I found out that "native" FileSystemObject reading of ANSI and UTF-16/UCS-2 files is much faster that ADODB.Stream hack.