Re: iconv is messing up a spreadsheet generated by the Spreadsheet Excel Writer

On Tue, 2009-01-13 at 16:33 +0200, Thodoris wrote: > > On Tue, 2009-01-13 at 16:07 +0200, Thodoris wrote: > > > >>> On Tue, 2009-01-13 at 15:51 +0200, Thodoris wrote: > >>> > >>> > >>>> Hi gang, > >>>> I am generating a spreadsheet using the contents of a mysql table. I > >>>> guess that there is something in the data that causes iconv used in the > >>>> module's script to generate this error: > >>>> > >>>> *Notice*: iconv() [function.iconv > >>>> > >>>> <file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/tgol/Local%20Settings/Temp/function.iconv>]: > >>>> Detected an incomplete multibyte character in input string in > >>>> */usr/local/share/pear/Spreadsheet/Excel/Writer/Worksheet.php* on line > >>>> *1547* > >>>> > >>>> This causes the production of weird characters in a cell in the > >>>> spreadsheet and after that cell everything is printed out of order. > >>>> > >>>> The data in the mysql table are filtered for non-printable character > >>>> before the data import. > >>>> > >>>> I have tried to filter the data before writing them into the sheet but > >>>> this behavior persists. > >>>> > >>>> Any ideas in what might be wrong? > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>> Well a multibyte character is something like a character from utf-8 or > >>> unicode, where more than one byte is used to represent the character. > >>> Does the Excel writer you use support utf or unicode? > >>> > >>> > >>> Ash > >>> www.ashleysheridan.co.uk > >>> > >>> > >>> > >> Actually it does and AFAIK it changes everything into UTF-16LE. The > >> Excel writer is the pecl module Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer. > >> > >> BTW do you have any suggestions for a better open source writer I could use? > >> > >> -- > >> Thodoris > >> > >> > >> > > Unfortunately I don't know of any other Excel writers, but I never > > really use that format anymore if I can help it. Would a CSV not work? > > > > > > Ash > > www.ashleysheridan.co.uk > > > > > > Well it does work but unfortunately both need to be supported. > > I should say that it actually is the pear module > Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer and not pecl. > > I could probably try to debug the module itself but this is usually a > very bad idea. I came to this point because I have stripped all > non-printable characters, tabs, CRs and LFs before writing into the > speadsheet but nothing seems to work. > Is there any chance its characters creeping in from being copied from a M$ program? I found that M$ software uses it's own character encodings for multibyte characters which causes no end of problems for web-based systems. A lot of it was where angled quotation marks were added my Word, and not encoded using the UTF encodings, but the M$-style ones instead. Ash www.ashleysheridan.co.uk