The GetEncoding method relies on the underlying platform to support most code pages. However, the .NET Framework natively supports some encodings.

Note:
The ANSI code pages can be different on different computers, or can be changed for a single computer, leading to data corruption. For the most consistent results, applications should use Unicode, such as UTF-8 (code page 65001) or UTF-16, instead of a specific code page.

For a list of code pages, see the Encoding class topic. The application uses the GetEncodings method to get a list of all encodings.

To get the encoding associated with the default ANSI code page in the operating system's regional and language settings, the application can use a setting of 0 for the codepage parameter or the Default property. To determine the default code pages used on the system, the application uses the Windows API function GetSystemDefaultLangID. To determine the current ANSI code page, the application uses the Windows API function GetACP.

GetEncoding returns a cached instance with default settings. The application should use the constructors of derived classes to get an instance with different settings. For example, the UTF32Encoding class provides a constructor that allows enabling of error detection.

The following code example gets two instances of the same encoding (one by codepage and another by name), and checks their equality.

Imports System
Imports System.Text

Public Class SamplesEncoding   

   Public Shared Sub Main()

      ' Get a UTF-32 encoding by codepage.
      Dim e1 As Encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding(12000)

      ' Get a UTF-32 encoding by name.
      Dim e2 As Encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding("utf-32")

      ' Check their equality.
      Console.WriteLine("e1 equals e2? {0}", e1.Equals(e2))

   End Sub 'Main 

End Class 'SamplesEncoding


'This code produces the following output.
'
'e1 equals e2? True

using System;
using System.Text;

public class SamplesEncoding  {

   public static void Main()  {

      // Get a UTF-32 encoding by codepage.
      Encoding e1 = Encoding.GetEncoding( 12000 );

      // Get a UTF-32 encoding by name.
      Encoding e2 = Encoding.GetEncoding( "utf-32" );

      // Check their equality.
      Console.WriteLine( "e1 equals e2? {0}", e1.Equals( e2 ) );

   }

}


/* 
This code produces the following output.

e1 equals e2? True

*/

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Text;
int main()
{

   // Get a UTF-32 encoding by codepage.
   Encoding^ e1 = Encoding::GetEncoding( 12000 );

   // Get a UTF-32 encoding by name.
   Encoding^ e2 = Encoding::GetEncoding( "utf-32" );

   // Check their equality.
   Console::WriteLine( "e1 equals e2? {0}", e1->Equals( e2 ) );
}

/* 
This code produces the following output.

e1 equals e2? True

*/

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune

.NET Framework

.NET Compact Framework

XNA Framework

Reference

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