Does Ruby provide a way to do File.read() with specified encoding?

Question

In ruby 1.9.x, we can specify the encoding with File.open(\'filename\',\'r:iso-8859-1\'). I often prefer to use a one-line File.read() if I am reading many shor

Answer 1

From the fine manual:

read(name, [length [, offset]], open_args) → string

Opens the file, optionally seeks to the given offset, then returns length bytes (defaulting to the rest of the file). read ensures the file is closed before returning.

If the last argument is a hash, it specifies option for internal open().

So you can say things like this:

>> s = File.read('pancakes', :encoding => 'iso-8859-1')
>> s.encoding
=> #<Encoding:ISO-8859-1>