## 24.3. Character Set Support

[24.3.1. Supported Character Sets](multibyte.html#MULTIBYTE-CHARSET-SUPPORTED)

[24.3.2. Setting the Character Set](multibyte.html#id-1.6.11.5.6)

[24.3.3. Automatic Character Set Conversion Between Server and Client](multibyte.html#id-1.6.11.5.7)

[24.3.4. Available Character Set Conversions](multibyte.html#MULTIBYTE-CONVERSIONS-SUPPORTED)

[24.3.5. Further Reading](multibyte.html#id-1.6.11.5.9)

[]()

 The character set support in PostgreSQL allows you to store text in a variety of character sets (also called encodings), including single-byte character sets such as the ISO 8859 series and multiple-byte character sets such as EUC (Extended Unix Code), UTF-8, and Mule internal code. All supported character sets can be used transparently by clients, but a few are not supported for use within the server (that is, as a server-side encoding). The default character set is selected while initializing your PostgreSQL database cluster using `initdb`. It can be overridden when you create a database, so you can have multiple databases each with a different character set.

 An important restriction, however, is that each database's character set must be compatible with the database's `LC_CTYPE` (character classification) and `LC_COLLATE` (string sort order) locale settings. For `C` or `POSIX` locale, any character set is allowed, but for other libc-provided locales there is only one character set that will work correctly. (On Windows, however, UTF-8 encoding can be used with any locale.) If you have ICU support configured, ICU-provided locales can be used with most but not all server-side encodings.

### 24.3.1. Supported Character Sets

[Table 24.1](multibyte.html#CHARSET-TABLE) shows the character sets available for use in PostgreSQL.

**Table 24.1. PostgreSQL Character Sets**

|      Name      |           Description           |           Language           |Server?|ICU?|Bytes/​Char|                   Aliases                   |
|----------------|---------------------------------|------------------------------|-------|----|-----------|---------------------------------------------|
|     `BIG5`     |            Big Five             |     Traditional Chinese      |  No   | No |    1–2    |           `WIN950`, `Windows950`            |
|    `EUC_CN`    |      Extended UNIX Code-CN      |      Simplified Chinese      |  Yes  |Yes |    1–3    |                                             |
|    `EUC_JP`    |      Extended UNIX Code-JP      |           Japanese           |  Yes  |Yes |    1–3    |                                             |
| `EUC_JIS_2004` |Extended UNIX Code-JP, JIS X 0213|           Japanese           |  Yes  | No |    1–3    |                                             |
|    `EUC_KR`    |      Extended UNIX Code-KR      |            Korean            |  Yes  |Yes |    1–3    |                                             |
|    `EUC_TW`    |      Extended UNIX Code-TW      |Traditional Chinese, Taiwanese|  Yes  |Yes |    1–3    |                                             |
|   `GB18030`    |        National Standard        |           Chinese            |  No   | No |    1–4    |                                             |
|     `GBK`      |   Extended National Standard    |      Simplified Chinese      |  No   | No |    1–2    |           `WIN936`, `Windows936`            |
|  `ISO_8859_5`  |      ISO 8859-5, ECMA 113       |        Latin/Cyrillic        |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|  `ISO_8859_6`  |      ISO 8859-6, ECMA 114       |         Latin/Arabic         |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|  `ISO_8859_7`  |      ISO 8859-7, ECMA 118       |         Latin/Greek          |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|  `ISO_8859_8`  |      ISO 8859-8, ECMA 121       |         Latin/Hebrew         |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|    `JOHAB`     |              JOHAB              |       Korean (Hangul)        |  No   | No |    1–3    |                                             |
|    `KOI8R`     |             KOI8-R              |      Cyrillic (Russian)      |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                   `KOI8`                    |
|    `KOI8U`     |             KOI8-U              |     Cyrillic (Ukrainian)     |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|    `LATIN1`    |       ISO 8859-1, ECMA 94       |       Western European       |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                 `ISO88591`                  |
|    `LATIN2`    |       ISO 8859-2, ECMA 94       |       Central European       |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                 `ISO88592`                  |
|    `LATIN3`    |       ISO 8859-3, ECMA 94       |        South European        |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                 `ISO88593`                  |
|    `LATIN4`    |       ISO 8859-4, ECMA 94       |        North European        |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                 `ISO88594`                  |
|    `LATIN5`    |      ISO 8859-9, ECMA 128       |           Turkish            |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                 `ISO88599`                  |
|    `LATIN6`    |      ISO 8859-10, ECMA 144      |            Nordic            |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                 `ISO885910`                 |
|    `LATIN7`    |           ISO 8859-13           |            Baltic            |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                 `ISO885913`                 |
|    `LATIN8`    |           ISO 8859-14           |            Celtic            |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                 `ISO885914`                 |
|    `LATIN9`    |           ISO 8859-15           | LATIN1 with Euro and accents |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                 `ISO885915`                 |
|   `LATIN10`    |   ISO 8859-16, ASRO SR 14111    |           Romanian           |  Yes  | No |     1     |                 `ISO885916`                 |
|`MULE_INTERNAL` |       Mule internal code        |      Multilingual Emacs      |  Yes  | No |    1–4    |                                             |
|     `SJIS`     |            Shift JIS            |           Japanese           |  No   | No |    1–2    |`Mskanji`, `ShiftJIS`, `WIN932`, `Windows932`|
|`SHIFT_JIS_2004`|      Shift JIS, JIS X 0213      |           Japanese           |  No   | No |    1–2    |                                             |
|  `SQL_ASCII`   |     unspecified (see text)      |            *any*             |  Yes  | No |     1     |                                             |
|     `UHC`      |       Unified Hangul Code       |            Korean            |  No   | No |    1–2    |           `WIN949`, `Windows949`            |
|     `UTF8`     |         Unicode, 8-bit          |            *all*             |  Yes  |Yes |    1–4    |                  `Unicode`                  |
|    `WIN866`    |          Windows CP866          |           Cyrillic           |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                    `ALT`                    |
|    `WIN874`    |          Windows CP874          |             Thai             |  Yes  | No |     1     |                                             |
|   `WIN1250`    |         Windows CP1250          |       Central European       |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|   `WIN1251`    |         Windows CP1251          |           Cyrillic           |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                    `WIN`                    |
|   `WIN1252`    |         Windows CP1252          |       Western European       |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|   `WIN1253`    |         Windows CP1253          |            Greek             |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|   `WIN1254`    |         Windows CP1254          |           Turkish            |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|   `WIN1255`    |         Windows CP1255          |            Hebrew            |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|   `WIN1256`    |         Windows CP1256          |            Arabic            |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|   `WIN1257`    |         Windows CP1257          |            Baltic            |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |                                             |
|   `WIN1258`    |         Windows CP1258          |          Vietnamese          |  Yes  |Yes |     1     |     `ABC`, `TCVN`, `TCVN5712`, `VSCII`      |

 Not all client APIs support all the listed character sets. For example, the PostgreSQL JDBC driver does not support `MULE_INTERNAL`, `LATIN6`, `LATIN8`, and `LATIN10`.

 The `SQL_ASCII` setting behaves considerably differently from the other settings. When the server character set is `SQL_ASCII`, the server interprets byte values 0–127 according to the ASCII standard, while byte values 128–255 are taken as uninterpreted characters. No encoding conversion will be done when the setting is `SQL_ASCII`. Thus, this setting is not so much a declaration that a specific encoding is in use, as a declaration of ignorance about the encoding. In most cases, if you are working with any non-ASCII data, it is unwise to use the `SQL_ASCII` setting because PostgreSQL will be unable to help you by converting or validating non-ASCII characters.

### 24.3.2. Setting the Character Set

`initdb` defines the default character set (encoding) for a PostgreSQL cluster. For example,

```
initdb -E EUC_JP

```

 sets the default character set to `EUC_JP` (Extended Unix Code for Japanese). You can use `--encoding` instead of `-E` if you prefer longer option strings. If no `-E` or `--encoding` option is given, `initdb` attempts to determine the appropriate encoding to use based on the specified or default locale.

 You can specify a non-default encoding at database creation time, provided that the encoding is compatible with the selected locale:

```
createdb -E EUC_KR -T template0 --lc-collate=ko_KR.euckr --lc-ctype=ko_KR.euckr korean

```

 This will create a database named `korean` that uses the character set `EUC_KR`, and locale `ko_KR`. Another way to accomplish this is to use this SQL command:

```
CREATE DATABASE korean WITH ENCODING 'EUC_KR' LC_COLLATE='ko_KR.euckr' LC_CTYPE='ko_KR.euckr' TEMPLATE=template0;

```

 Notice that the above commands specify copying the `template0` database. When copying any other database, the encoding and locale settings cannot be changed from those of the source database, because that might result in corrupt data. For more information see [Section 23.3](manage-ag-templatedbs.html).

 The encoding for a database is stored in the system catalog `pg_database`. You can see it by using the `psql` `-l` option or the `\l` command.

```
$ psql -l
                                         List of databases
   Name    |  Owner   | Encoding  |  Collation  |    Ctype    |          Access Privileges          
### Important

 On most modern operating systems, PostgreSQL can determine which character set is implied by the `LC_CTYPE` setting, and it will enforce that only the matching database encoding is used. On older systems it is your responsibility to ensure that you use the encoding expected by the locale you have selected. A mistake in this area is likely to lead to strange behavior of locale-dependent operations such as sorting.

PostgreSQL will allow superusers to create databases with `SQL_ASCII` encoding even when `LC_CTYPE` is not `C` or `POSIX`. As noted above, `SQL_ASCII` does not enforce that the data stored in the database has any particular encoding, and so this choice poses risks of locale-dependent misbehavior. Using this combination of settings is deprecated and may someday be forbidden altogether.

### 24.3.3. Automatic Character Set Conversion Between Server and Client

PostgreSQL supports automatic character set conversion between server and client for many combinations of character sets ([Section 24.3.4](multibyte.html#MULTIBYTE-CONVERSIONS-SUPPORTED) shows which ones).

 To enable automatic character set conversion, you have to tell PostgreSQL the character set (encoding) you would like to use in the client. There are several ways to accomplish this:

* Using the `\encoding` command in psql. `\encoding` allows you to change client encoding on the fly. For example, to change the encoding to `SJIS`, type:

  ```
  \encoding SJIS

  ```

* libpq ([Section 34.11](libpq-control.html)) has functions to control the client encoding.

* Using `SET client_encoding TO`. Setting the client encoding can be done with this SQL command:

  ```
  SET CLIENT_ENCODING TO 'value';

  ```

   Also you can use the standard SQL syntax `SET NAMES` for this purpose:

  ```
  SET NAMES 'value';

  ```

   To query the current client encoding:

  ```
  SHOW client_encoding;

  ```

   To return to the default encoding:

  ```
  RESET client_encoding;

  ```

* Using `PGCLIENTENCODING`. If the environment variable `PGCLIENTENCODING` is defined in the client's environment, that client encoding is automatically selected when a connection to the server is made. (This can subsequently be overridden using any of the other methods mentioned above.)

* Using the configuration variable [client\_encoding](runtime-config-client.html#GUC-CLIENT-ENCODING). If the `client_encoding` variable is set, that client encoding is automatically selected when a connection to the server is made. (This can subsequently be overridden using any of the other methods mentioned above.)

 If the conversion of a particular character is not possible — suppose you chose `EUC_JP` for the server and `LATIN1` for the client, and some Japanese characters are returned that do not have a representation in `LATIN1` — an error is reported.

 If the client character set is defined as `SQL_ASCII`, encoding conversion is disabled, regardless of the server's character set. (However, if the server's character set is not `SQL_ASCII`, the server will still check that incoming data is valid for that encoding; so the net effect is as though the client character set were the same as the server's.) Just as for the server, use of `SQL_ASCII` is unwise unless you are working with all-ASCII data.

### 24.3.4. Available Character Set Conversions

PostgreSQL allows conversion between any two character sets for which a conversion function is listed in the [`pg_conversion`](catalog-pg-conversion.html) system catalog. PostgreSQL comes with some predefined conversions, as summarized in [Table 24.2](multibyte.html#MULTIBYTE-TRANSLATION-TABLE) and shown in more detail in [Table 24.3](multibyte.html#BUILTIN-CONVERSIONS-TABLE). You can create a new conversion using the SQL command [CREATE CONVERSION](sql-createconversion.html). (To be used for automatic client/server conversions, a conversion must be marked as “default” for its character set pair.)

**Table 24.2. Built-in Client/Server Character Set Conversions**

|Server Character Set|                                                           Available Client Character Sets                                                           |
|--------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|       `BIG5`       |                                                        *not supported as a server encoding*                                                         |
|      `EUC_CN`      |                                                         *EUC\_CN*, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`                                                          |
|      `EUC_JP`      |                                                     *EUC\_JP*, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `SJIS`, `UTF8`                                                      |
|   `EUC_JIS_2004`   |                                                     *EUC\_JIS\_2004*, `SHIFT_JIS_2004`, `UTF8`                                                      |
|      `EUC_KR`      |                                                         *EUC\_KR*, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`                                                          |
|      `EUC_TW`      |                                                     *EUC\_TW*, `BIG5`, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`                                                      |
|     `GB18030`      |                                                        *not supported as a server encoding*                                                         |
|       `GBK`        |                                                        *not supported as a server encoding*                                                         |
|    `ISO_8859_5`    |                                        *ISO\_8859\_5*, `KOI8R`, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`, `WIN866`, `WIN1251`                                        |
|    `ISO_8859_6`    |                                                               *ISO\_8859\_6*, `UTF8`                                                                |
|    `ISO_8859_7`    |                                                               *ISO\_8859\_7*, `UTF8`                                                                |
|    `ISO_8859_8`    |                                                               *ISO\_8859\_8*, `UTF8`                                                                |
|      `JOHAB`       |                                                        *not supported as a server encoding*                                                         |
|      `KOI8R`       |                                         *KOI8R*, `ISO_8859_5`, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`, `WIN866`, `WIN1251`                                         |
|      `KOI8U`       |                                                                   *KOI8U*, `UTF8`                                                                   |
|      `LATIN1`      |                                                          *LATIN1*, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`                                                          |
|      `LATIN2`      |                                                    *LATIN2*, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`, `WIN1250`                                                     |
|      `LATIN3`      |                                                          *LATIN3*, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`                                                          |
|      `LATIN4`      |                                                          *LATIN4*, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`                                                          |
|      `LATIN5`      |                                                                  *LATIN5*, `UTF8`                                                                   |
|      `LATIN6`      |                                                                  *LATIN6*, `UTF8`                                                                   |
|      `LATIN7`      |                                                                  *LATIN7*, `UTF8`                                                                   |
|      `LATIN8`      |                                                                  *LATIN8*, `UTF8`                                                                   |
|      `LATIN9`      |                                                                  *LATIN9*, `UTF8`                                                                   |
|     `LATIN10`      |                                                                  *LATIN10*, `UTF8`                                                                  |
|  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |*MULE\_INTERNAL*, `BIG5`, `EUC_CN`, `EUC_JP`, `EUC_KR`, `EUC_TW`, `ISO_8859_5`, `KOI8R`, `LATIN1` to `LATIN4`, `SJIS`, `WIN866`, `WIN1250`, `WIN1251`|
|       `SJIS`       |                                                        *not supported as a server encoding*                                                         |
|  `SHIFT_JIS_2004`  |                                                        *not supported as a server encoding*                                                         |
|    `SQL_ASCII`     |                                                       *any (no conversion will be performed)*                                                       |
|       `UHC`        |                                                        *not supported as a server encoding*                                                         |
|       `UTF8`       |                                                              *all supported encodings*                                                              |
|      `WIN866`      |                                         *WIN866*, `ISO_8859_5`, `KOI8R`, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`, `WIN1251`                                         |
|      `WIN874`      |                                                                  *WIN874*, `UTF8`                                                                   |
|     `WIN1250`      |                                                    *WIN1250*, `LATIN2`, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`                                                     |
|     `WIN1251`      |                                         *WIN1251*, `ISO_8859_5`, `KOI8R`, `MULE_INTERNAL`, `UTF8`, `WIN866`                                         |
|     `WIN1252`      |                                                                  *WIN1252*, `UTF8`                                                                  |
|     `WIN1253`      |                                                                  *WIN1253*, `UTF8`                                                                  |
|     `WIN1254`      |                                                                  *WIN1254*, `UTF8`                                                                  |
|     `WIN1255`      |                                                                  *WIN1255*, `UTF8`                                                                  |
|     `WIN1256`      |                                                                  *WIN1256*, `UTF8`                                                                  |
|     `WIN1257`      |                                                                  *WIN1257*, `UTF8`                                                                  |
|     `WIN1258`      |                                                                  *WIN1258*, `UTF8`                                                                  |

**Table 24.3. All Built-in Character Set Conversions**

|                                                                                                                                                             Conversion Name [<sup class="footnote" id="id-1.6.11.5.8.4.2.4.1.1.1">[a]</sup>](#ftn.id-1.6.11.5.8.4.2.4.1.1.1)                                                                                                                                                             |Source Encoding |Destination Encoding|
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------|--------------------|
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `big5_to_euc_tw`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |     `BIG5`     |      `EUC_TW`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `big5_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                               |     `BIG5`     |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `big5_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |     `BIG5`     |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `euc_cn_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |    `EUC_CN`    |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `euc_cn_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |    `EUC_CN`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `euc_jp_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |    `EUC_JP`    |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `euc_jp_to_sjis`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |    `EUC_JP`    |       `SJIS`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `euc_jp_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |    `EUC_JP`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `euc_kr_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |    `EUC_KR`    |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `euc_kr_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |    `EUC_KR`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `euc_tw_to_big5`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |    `EUC_TW`    |       `BIG5`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `euc_tw_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |    `EUC_TW`    |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `euc_tw_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |    `EUC_TW`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                            `gb18030_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |   `GB18030`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `gbk_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                               |     `GBK`      |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `iso_8859_10_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `LATIN6`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `iso_8859_13_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `LATIN7`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `iso_8859_14_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `LATIN8`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `iso_8859_15_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `LATIN9`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `iso_8859_16_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |   `LATIN10`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_1_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                            |    `LATIN1`    |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_1_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `LATIN1`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_2_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                            |    `LATIN2`    |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_2_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `LATIN2`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                       `iso_8859_2_to_windows_1250`                                                                                                                                                                                                       |    `LATIN2`    |     `WIN1250`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_3_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                            |    `LATIN3`    |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_3_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `LATIN3`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_4_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                            |    `LATIN4`    |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_4_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `LATIN4`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `iso_8859_5_to_koi8_r`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |  `ISO_8859_5`  |      `KOI8R`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_5_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                            |  `ISO_8859_5`  |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_5_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |  `ISO_8859_5`  |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                       `iso_8859_5_to_windows_1251`                                                                                                                                                                                                       |  `ISO_8859_5`  |     `WIN1251`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                       `iso_8859_5_to_windows_866`                                                                                                                                                                                                        |  `ISO_8859_5`  |      `WIN866`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_6_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |  `ISO_8859_6`  |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_7_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |  `ISO_8859_7`  |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_8_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |  `ISO_8859_8`  |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `iso_8859_9_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `LATIN5`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `johab_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |    `JOHAB`     |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `koi8_r_to_iso_8859_5`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |    `KOI8R`     |    `ISO_8859_5`    |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `koi8_r_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |    `KOI8R`     |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `koi8_r_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |    `KOI8R`     |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                         `koi8_r_to_windows_1251`                                                                                                                                                                                                         |    `KOI8R`     |     `WIN1251`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                         `koi8_r_to_windows_866`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |    `KOI8R`     |      `WIN866`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `koi8_u_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |    `KOI8U`     |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `mic_to_big5`                                                                                                                                                                                                               |`MULE_INTERNAL` |       `BIG5`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `mic_to_euc_cn`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |`MULE_INTERNAL` |      `EUC_CN`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `mic_to_euc_jp`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |`MULE_INTERNAL` |      `EUC_JP`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `mic_to_euc_kr`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |`MULE_INTERNAL` |      `EUC_KR`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `mic_to_euc_tw`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |`MULE_INTERNAL` |      `EUC_TW`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `mic_to_iso_8859_1`                                                                                                                                                                                                            |`MULE_INTERNAL` |      `LATIN1`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `mic_to_iso_8859_2`                                                                                                                                                                                                            |`MULE_INTERNAL` |      `LATIN2`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `mic_to_iso_8859_3`                                                                                                                                                                                                            |`MULE_INTERNAL` |      `LATIN3`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `mic_to_iso_8859_4`                                                                                                                                                                                                            |`MULE_INTERNAL` |      `LATIN4`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `mic_to_iso_8859_5`                                                                                                                                                                                                            |`MULE_INTERNAL` |    `ISO_8859_5`    |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `mic_to_koi8_r`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |`MULE_INTERNAL` |      `KOI8R`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `mic_to_sjis`                                                                                                                                                                                                               |`MULE_INTERNAL` |       `SJIS`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `mic_to_windows_1250`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |`MULE_INTERNAL` |     `WIN1250`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `mic_to_windows_1251`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |`MULE_INTERNAL` |     `WIN1251`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `mic_to_windows_866`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |`MULE_INTERNAL` |      `WIN866`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `sjis_to_euc_jp`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |     `SJIS`     |      `EUC_JP`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `sjis_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                               |     `SJIS`     |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `sjis_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |     `SJIS`     |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `windows_1258_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |   `WIN1258`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `uhc_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                               |     `UHC`      |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `utf8_to_big5`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |     `UTF8`     |       `BIG5`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `utf8_to_euc_cn`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |     `UTF8`     |      `EUC_CN`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `utf8_to_euc_jp`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |     `UTF8`     |      `EUC_JP`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `utf8_to_euc_kr`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |     `UTF8`     |      `EUC_KR`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `utf8_to_euc_tw`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |     `UTF8`     |      `EUC_TW`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                            `utf8_to_gb18030`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |     `UTF8`     |     `GB18030`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `utf8_to_gbk`                                                                                                                                                                                                               |     `UTF8`     |       `GBK`        |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `utf8_to_iso_8859_1`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |      `LATIN1`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_iso_8859_10`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |      `LATIN6`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_iso_8859_13`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |      `LATIN7`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_iso_8859_14`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |      `LATIN8`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_iso_8859_15`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |      `LATIN9`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_iso_8859_16`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |     `LATIN10`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `utf8_to_iso_8859_2`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |      `LATIN2`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `utf8_to_iso_8859_3`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |      `LATIN3`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `utf8_to_iso_8859_4`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |      `LATIN4`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `utf8_to_iso_8859_5`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |    `ISO_8859_5`    |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `utf8_to_iso_8859_6`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |    `ISO_8859_6`    |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `utf8_to_iso_8859_7`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |    `ISO_8859_7`    |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `utf8_to_iso_8859_8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |    `ISO_8859_8`    |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `utf8_to_iso_8859_9`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |      `LATIN5`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `utf8_to_johab`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |     `UTF8`     |      `JOHAB`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `utf8_to_koi8_r`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |     `UTF8`     |      `KOI8R`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                             `utf8_to_koi8_u`                                                                                                                                                                                                             |     `UTF8`     |      `KOI8U`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `utf8_to_sjis`                                                                                                                                                                                                              |     `UTF8`     |       `SJIS`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_windows_1258`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |     `UTF8`     |     `WIN1258`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                              `utf8_to_uhc`                                                                                                                                                                                                               |     `UTF8`     |       `UHC`        |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_windows_1250`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |     `UTF8`     |     `WIN1250`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_windows_1251`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |     `UTF8`     |     `WIN1251`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_windows_1252`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |     `UTF8`     |     `WIN1252`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_windows_1253`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |     `UTF8`     |     `WIN1253`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_windows_1254`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |     `UTF8`     |     `WIN1254`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_windows_1255`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |     `UTF8`     |     `WIN1255`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_windows_1256`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |     `UTF8`     |     `WIN1256`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_windows_1257`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |     `UTF8`     |     `WIN1257`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_windows_866`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |      `WIN866`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_windows_874`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |     `UTF8`     |      `WIN874`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                       `windows_1250_to_iso_8859_2`                                                                                                                                                                                                       |   `WIN1250`    |      `LATIN2`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `windows_1250_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |   `WIN1250`    |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `windows_1250_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |   `WIN1250`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                       `windows_1251_to_iso_8859_5`                                                                                                                                                                                                       |   `WIN1251`    |    `ISO_8859_5`    |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                         `windows_1251_to_koi8_r`                                                                                                                                                                                                         |   `WIN1251`    |      `KOI8R`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `windows_1251_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |   `WIN1251`    |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `windows_1251_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |   `WIN1251`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                      `windows_1251_to_windows_866`                                                                                                                                                                                                       |   `WIN1251`    |      `WIN866`      |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `windows_1252_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |   `WIN1252`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `windows_1256_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |   `WIN1256`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                       `windows_866_to_iso_8859_5`                                                                                                                                                                                                        |    `WIN866`    |    `ISO_8859_5`    |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                         `windows_866_to_koi8_r`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |    `WIN866`    |      `KOI8R`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                           `windows_866_to_mic`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `WIN866`    |  `MULE_INTERNAL`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `windows_866_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `WIN866`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                      `windows_866_to_windows_1251`                                                                                                                                                                                                       |    `WIN866`    |       `WIN`        |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `windows_874_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                           |    `WIN874`    |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `euc_jis_2004_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                          | `EUC_JIS_2004` |       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                          `utf8_to_euc_jis_2004`                                                                                                                                                                                                          |     `UTF8`     |   `EUC_JIS_2004`   |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                         `shift_jis_2004_to_utf8`                                                                                                                                                                                                         |`SHIFT_JIS_2004`|       `UTF8`       |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                         `utf8_to_shift_jis_2004`                                                                                                                                                                                                         |     `UTF8`     |  `SHIFT_JIS_2004`  |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                     `euc_jis_2004_to_shift_jis_2004`                                                                                                                                                                                                     | `EUC_JIS_2004` |  `SHIFT_JIS_2004`  |
|                                                                                                                                                                                                     `shift_jis_2004_to_euc_jis_2004`                                                                                                                                                                                                     |`SHIFT_JIS_2004`|   `EUC_JIS_2004`   |
|[<sup class="para">[a] </sup>](#id-1.6.11.5.8.4.2.4.1.1.1) The conversion names follow a standard naming scheme: The official name of the source encoding with all non-alphanumeric characters replaced by underscores, followed by `_to_`, followed by the similarly processed destination encoding name. Therefore, these names sometimes deviate from the customary encoding names shown in [Table 24.1](multibyte.html#CHARSET-TABLE).|                |                    |

### 24.3.5. Further Reading

 These are good sources to start learning about various kinds of encoding systems.

*CJKV Information Processing: Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese Computing*

 Contains detailed explanations of `EUC_JP`, `EUC_CN`, `EUC_KR`, `EUC_TW`.

[https://www.unicode.org/](https://www.unicode.org/)

 The web site of the Unicode Consortium.

[RFC 3629](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3629)

UTF-8 (8-bit UCS/Unicode Transformation Format) is defined here.

