Set File Encoding

For most people, when you create a script in PowerShell you generally don't worry too much about how it is encoded. Most everything you encounter in PowerShell uses Unicode files. But when sharing files sometimes this causes problems. For example, when I post a script for download here, I need to make sure it is encoded using ASCII, otherwise formatting can get a little borked. I've also run into issues with editing the same file among different editors. Often what I need is a way to set the encoding. The manual way would be to use Notepad and select an appropriate encoding when using Save As. But that doesn't scale. What I need is a way to take a group of files and set encoding. Here's my PowerShell solution.
When I first tackled this problem I thought I was going to have to deal with arcane .NET classes. Then I remembered that Out-File has a parameter to specify encoding. All I had to do was take the content of the original file and send it to the same file with the appropriate encoding.
Technically, Out-File is creating a new file but I wanted to keep the same name. The easiest solution was to get the contents of the current file and same them to a variable. Then use that as the input for Out-File.
[cc lang="PowerShell"]
$content=Get-Content -Path $file
$filedata=Get-Item -Path $file
Write-Verbose "$(Get-Date) Saving content"
Out-File -FilePath $file -Encoding $Encoding -InputObject $content
[/cc]
One drawback, at least for me, is that results in a new file which means it has a new time stamp. Most of the time I want to leave this data alone so my Set-FileEncoding function has a parameter called -SaveTime that will take the time stamp values from the original file and copy them to the "new" file.
[cc lang="PowerShell"]
if ($SaveTime)
{
#get the "new" file
$f=Get-Item -Path $file
Write-Verbose "$(Get-Date) Retaining original time stamp values"
if ($pscmdlet.ShouldProcess("Resetting Timestamp on $file"))
{
#revert timestamp values
$f.CreationTime=$filedata.CreationTime
$f.CreationTimeUtc=$filedata.CreationTimeUtc
$f.LastAccessTime= $filedata.LastAccessTime
$f.LastAccessTimeUtc=$filedata.LastAccessTimeUtc
$f.LastWriteTime=$filedata.LastWriteTime
$f.LastWriteTimeUtc=$filedata.LastWriteTimeUtc
}
}
[/cc]
The end result is that I have a "new" copy of my file but with new encoding. Here's my function with the comment based help omitted.
[cc lang="PowerShell"]
Function Set-FileEncoding {
[cmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess=$True)]

Param (
[Parameter(Position=0,Mandatory=$True,HelpMessage="Enter a file name and

path.",
ValueFromPipeline=$True,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$True)]
[ValidateNotNullorEmpty()]
[Alias("PSPath","Name")]
[string[]]$Path,

[ValidateSet("Unicode", "UTF7", "UTF8", "UTF32",

"ASCII","BigEndianUnicode", "Default","OEM")]
[string]$Encoding="ASCII",

[switch]$SaveTime,

[switch]$Passthru
)

Begin
{
Write-Verbose "$(Get-Date) Starting $($myinvocation.command)"
}

Process
{
foreach ($file in $path)
{
Write-Verbose "$(Get-Date) Setting encoding on $File to $Encoding"
Write-Verbose "$(Get-Date) Getting content"
$content=Get-Content -Path $file
$filedata=Get-Item -Path $file
Write-Verbose "$(Get-Date) Saving content"
Out-File -FilePath $file -Encoding $Encoding -InputObject $content

if ($SaveTime)
{
#get the "new" file
$f=Get-Item -Path $file
Write-Verbose "$(Get-Date) Retaining original time stamp values"
if ($pscmdlet.ShouldProcess("Resetting Timestamp on $file"))
{
#revert timestamp values
$f.CreationTime=$filedata.CreationTime
$f.CreationTimeUtc=$filedata.CreationTimeUtc
$f.LastAccessTime= $filedata.LastAccessTime
$f.LastAccessTimeUtc=$filedata.LastAccessTimeUtc
$f.LastWriteTime=$filedata.LastWriteTime
$f.LastWriteTimeUtc=$filedata.LastWriteTimeUtc
}
}
if ($PassThru)
{
Get-Item -Path $file
}

} #foreach
} #process

End
{
Write-Verbose "$(Get-Date) Ending $($myinvocation.command)"
}

} #end function
[/cc]
The default encoding is set to ASCII but you can specify any encoding supported by Out-File. The function does not write anything to the pipeline. But you can use -Passthru and then the function will write the file object to the pipeline. Here are some examples:
[cc lang="PowerShell"]
PS C:\> Set-FileEncoding c:\files\data.txt -encoding Unicode
PS C:\> dir c:\scripts\*.ps1 | set-fileencoding -savetime
[/cc]
I hope it goes with out saying but don't try to use this with anything other than text files. Otherwise you will end up with corrupt files. If you can open the file and read it in Notepad then it should be fine.

Download Set-FileEncoding.ps1.

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