W3cubDocs

TextDecoder.constructor

This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The TextDecoder() constructor returns a newly created TextDecoder object for the encoding specified in parameter.

If the value for utfLabel is unknown, or is one of the two values leading to a 'replacement' decoding algorithm ( "iso-2022-cn" or "iso-2022-cn-ext"), a DOMException with the "TypeError" value is thrown.

Syntax

decoder = new TextDecoder(utfLabel, options);

Parameters

utfLabelOptional

Is a DOMString, defaulting to "utf-8", containing the label of the encoder. Each label is associated with a specific encoding type:

Possible values of `utfLabel`	Encoding
"`unicode-1-1-utf-8`", "`utf-8`", "`utf8`"	`'utf-8'`
"`866`", "`cp866`", "`csibm866`", "`ibm866`"	`'ibm866'`
"`csisolatin2`", "`iso-8859-2`", "`iso-ir-101`", "`iso8859-2`", "`iso88592`", "`iso_8859-2`", "`iso_8859-2:1987`", "`l2`", "`latin2`"	`'iso-8859-2'`
"`csisolatin3`", "`iso-8859-3`", "`iso-ir-109`", "`iso8859-3`", "`iso88593`", "`iso_8859-3`", "`iso_8859-3:1988`", "`l3`", "`latin3`"	`'iso-8859-3'`
"`csisolatin4`", "`iso-8859-4`", "`iso-ir-110`", "`iso8859-4`", "`iso88594`", "`iso_8859-4`", "`iso_8859-4:1988`", "`l4`", "`latin4`"	`'iso-8859-4'`
"`csisolatincyrillic`", "`cyrillic`", "`iso-8859-5`", "`iso-ir-144`", "`iso88595`", "`iso_8859-5`", "`iso_8859-5:1988`"	`'iso-8859-5'`
"`arabic`", "`asmo-708`", "`csiso88596e`", "`csiso88596i`", "`csisolatinarabic`", "`ecma-114`", "`iso-8859-6`", "`iso-8859-6-e`", "`iso-8859-6-i`", "`iso-ir-127`", "`iso8859-6`", "`iso88596`", "`iso_8859-6`", "`iso_8859-6:1987`"	`'iso-8859-6'`
"`csisolatingreek`", "`ecma-118`", "`elot_928`", "`greek`", "`greek8`", "`iso-8859-7`", "`iso-ir-126`", "`iso8859-7`", "`iso88597`", "`iso_8859-7`", "`iso_8859-7:1987`", "`sun_eu_greek`"	`'iso-8859-7'`
"`csiso88598e`", "`csisolatinhebrew`", "`hebrew`", "`iso-8859-8`", "`iso-8859-8-e`", "`iso-ir-138`", "`iso8859-8`", "`iso88598`", "`iso_8859-8`", "`iso_8859-8:1988`", "`visual`"	`'iso-8859-8'`
"`csiso88598i`", "`iso-8859-8-i`", "`logical`"	`'iso-8859-8i'`
"`csisolatin6`", "`iso-8859-10`", "`iso-ir-157`", "`iso8859-10`", "`iso885910`", "`l6`", "`latin6`"	`'iso-8859-10'`
"`iso-8859-13`", "`iso8859-13`", "`iso885913`"	`'iso-8859-13'`
"`iso-8859-14`", "`iso8859-14`", "`iso885914`"	`'iso-8859-14'`
"`csisolatin9`", "`iso-8859-15`", "`iso8859-15`", "`iso885915`", "`l9`", "`latin9`"	`'iso-8859-15'`
"`iso-8859-16`"	`'iso-8859-16'`
"`cskoi8r`", "`koi`", "`koi8`", "`koi8-r`", "`koi8_r`"	`'koi8-r'`
"`koi8-u`"	`'koi8-u'`
"`csmacintosh`", "`mac`", "`macintosh`", "`x-mac-roman`"	`'macintosh'`
"`dos-874`", "`iso-8859-11`", "`iso8859-11`", "`iso885911`", "`tis-620`", "`windows-874`"	`'windows-874'`
"`cp1250`", "`windows-1250`", "`x-cp1250`"	`'windows-1250'`
"`cp1251`", "`windows-1251`", "`x-cp1251`"	`'windows-1251'`
"`ansi_x3.4-1968`", "`ascii`", "`cp1252`", "`cp819`", "`csisolatin1`", "`ibm819`", "`iso-8859-1`", "`iso-ir-100`", "`iso8859-1`", "`iso88591`", "`iso_8859-1`", "`iso_8859-1:1987`", "`l1`", "`latin1`", "`us-ascii`", "`windows-1252`", "`x-cp1252`"	`'windows-1252'`
"`cp1253`", "`windows-1253`", "`x-cp1253`"	`'windows-1253'`
"`cp1254`", "`csisolatin5`", "`iso-8859-9`", "`iso-ir-148`", "`iso8859-9`", "`iso88599`", "`iso_8859-9`", "`iso_8859-9:1989`", "`l5`", "`latin5`", "`windows-1254`", "`x-cp1254`"	`'windows-1254'`
"`cp1255`", "`windows-1255`", "`x-cp1255`"	`'windows-1255'`
"`cp1256`", "`windows-1256`", "`x-cp1256`"	`'windows-1256'`
"`cp1257`", "`windows-1257`", "`x-cp1257`"	`'windows-1257'`
"`cp1258`", "`windows-1258`", "`x-cp1258`"	`'windows-1258'`
"`x-mac-cyrillic`", "`x-mac-ukrainian`"	`'x-mac-cyrillic'`
"`chinese`", "`csgb2312`", "`csiso58gb231280`", "`gb2312`", "`gb_2312`", "`gb_2312-80`", "`gbk`", "`iso-ir-58`", "`x-gbk`"	`'gbk'`
"`gb18030`"	`'gb18030'`
"`hz-gb-2312`"	`'hz-gb-2312'`
"`big5`", "`big5-hkscs`", "`cn-big5`", "`csbig5`", "`x-x-big5`"	`'big5'`
"`cseucpkdfmtjapanese`", "`euc-jp`", "`x-euc-jp`"	`'euc-jp'`
"`csiso2022jp`", "`iso-2022-jp`" Note: Firefox used to accept `iso-2022-jp-2` sequences silently when an `iso-2022-jp` decoder was instantiated, however this was removed in version 56 to simplify the API, as no other browsers support it and no pages seem to use it.	`'iso-2022-jp'`
"`csshiftjis`", "`ms_kanji`", "`shift-jis`", "`shift_jis`", "`sjis`", "`windows-31j`", "`x-sjis`"	`'shift-jis'`
"`cseuckr`", "`csksc56011987`", "`euc-kr`", "`iso-ir-149`", "`korean`", "`ks_c_5601-1987`", "`ks_c_5601-1989`", "`ksc5601`", "`ksc_5601`", "`windows-949`"	`'euc-kr'`
"`csiso2022kr`", "`iso-2022-kr`"	`'iso-2022-kr'`
"`utf-16be`"	`'utf-16be'`
"`utf-16`", "`utf-16le`"	`'utf-16le'`
"`x-user-defined`"	`'x-user-defined'`
"`iso-2022-cn`", "`iso-2022-cn-ext`"	`'replacement'`

optionsOptional

Is a TextDecoderOptions dictionary with the property:

fatal: A Boolean flag indicating if the TextDecoder.decode() method must throw a DOMException with the "EncodingError" value when an coding error is found. It defaults to false.

Example

var textDecoder1 = new TextDecoder("iso-8859-2");
var textDecoder2 = new TextDecoder();
var textDecoder3 = new TextDecoder("csiso2022kr", {fatal: true}); // Allows EncodingError exception to be thrown.
var textDecoder4 = new TextDecoder("iso-2022-cn"); // Throw a TypeError exception.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Encoding The definition of 'TextDecoder()' in that specification.	Living Standard	Initial definition.

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Basic support	38	?	19 19 18 Implemented a slightly different version of the spec.	No	25	10.1