iconv-lite¶

C++ companion port of npm iconv-lite for polycpp applications that need to accept, produce, or relay text in legacy byte encodings while keeping their C++ domain model in UTF-8.

#include <polycpp/iconv_lite/iconv_lite.hpp>

Use this library when a protocol, file, database export, mail body, terminal integration, or partner system says “this text is Windows-1251”, “Shift_JIS”, gb18030, latin1, utf16le, or another iconv-lite-style label, but your application code wants normal UTF-8 std::string values.

Common workflows¶

Decode an incoming payload

Convert bytes from files, HTTP bodies, message queues, archives, or database exports into UTF-8 text with decode.

Encode for a legacy system

Convert UTF-8 application text to a required legacy byte encoding with encode before writing or sending it.

Process chunked data

Use getDecoder / getEncoder or transform streams when a byte sequence may be split across network or file chunks.

Normalize labels and BOMs

Accept user-provided labels safely, inspect how they resolve, and control BOM stripping or prepending for UTF encodings.

Where to go next¶

If you need to…	Read…
Add the dependency to a CMake project	Installation
Convert a single payload	Quickstart and Batch conversion
Choose between batch, stateful, and stream APIs	Choosing a conversion workflow
Handle split byte sequences or stream chunks	Chunked conversion, Stateful conversion, and Streaming conversion
Accept encoding names from config, headers, or users	Encoding labels and Handling untrusted labels
Work with UTF BOMs	BOM handling and BOM-sensitive payloads

Getting started¶

FetchContent_Declare(
    polycpp_iconv_lite
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/polycpp/iconv-lite.git
    GIT_TAG        master
)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(polycpp_iconv_lite)
target_link_libraries(my_app PRIVATE polycpp::iconv_lite)

Installation | Quickstart | Examples | How-to guides | API reference