I’m trying to read CSV files using Java. Some of the files may have a byte order mark in the beginning, but not all. When present, the byte order gets read along with the rest of the first line, thus causing problems with string compares.
Is there an easy way to skip the byte order mark when it is present?
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Answer
EDIT: I’ve made a proper release on GitHub: https://github.com/gpakosz/UnicodeBOMInputStream
Here is a class I coded a while ago, I just edited the package name before pasting. Nothing special, it is quite similar to solutions posted in SUN’s bug database. Incorporate it in your code and you’re fine.
/* ____________________________________________________________________________
*
* File: UnicodeBOMInputStream.java
* Author: Gregory Pakosz.
* Date: 02 - November - 2005
* ____________________________________________________________________________
*/
package com.stackoverflow.answer;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.PushbackInputStream;
/**
* The <code>UnicodeBOMInputStream</code> class wraps any
* <code>InputStream</code> and detects the presence of any Unicode BOM
* (Byte Order Mark) at its beginning, as defined by
* <a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3629.html">RFC 3629 - UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646</a>
*
* <p>The
* <a href="http://www.unicode.org/unicode/faq/utf_bom.html">Unicode FAQ</a>
* defines 5 types of BOMs:<ul>
* <li><pre>00 00 FE FF = UTF-32, big-endian</pre></li>
* <li><pre>FF FE 00 00 = UTF-32, little-endian</pre></li>
* <li><pre>FE FF = UTF-16, big-endian</pre></li>
* <li><pre>FF FE = UTF-16, little-endian</pre></li>
* <li><pre>EF BB BF = UTF-8</pre></li>
* </ul></p>
*
* <p>Use the {@link #getBOM()} method to know whether a BOM has been detected
* or not.
* </p>
* <p>Use the {@link #skipBOM()} method to remove the detected BOM from the
* wrapped <code>InputStream</code> object.</p>
*/
public class UnicodeBOMInputStream extends InputStream
{
/**
* Type safe enumeration class that describes the different types of Unicode
* BOMs.
*/
public static final class BOM
{
/**
* NONE.
*/
public static final BOM NONE = new BOM(new byte[]{},"NONE");
/**
* UTF-8 BOM (EF BB BF).
*/
public static final BOM UTF_8 = new BOM(new byte[]{(byte)0xEF,
(byte)0xBB,
(byte)0xBF},
"UTF-8");
/**
* UTF-16, little-endian (FF FE).
*/
public static final BOM UTF_16_LE = new BOM(new byte[]{ (byte)0xFF,
(byte)0xFE},
"UTF-16 little-endian");
/**
* UTF-16, big-endian (FE FF).
*/
public static final BOM UTF_16_BE = new BOM(new byte[]{ (byte)0xFE,
(byte)0xFF},
"UTF-16 big-endian");
/**
* UTF-32, little-endian (FF FE 00 00).
*/
public static final BOM UTF_32_LE = new BOM(new byte[]{ (byte)0xFF,
(byte)0xFE,
(byte)0x00,
(byte)0x00},
"UTF-32 little-endian");
/**
* UTF-32, big-endian (00 00 FE FF).
*/
public static final BOM UTF_32_BE = new BOM(new byte[]{ (byte)0x00,
(byte)0x00,
(byte)0xFE,
(byte)0xFF},
"UTF-32 big-endian");
/**
* Returns a <code>String</code> representation of this <code>BOM</code>
* value.
*/
public final String toString()
{
return description;
}
/**
* Returns the bytes corresponding to this <code>BOM</code> value.
*/
public final byte[] getBytes()
{
final int length = bytes.length;
final byte[] result = new byte[length];
// Make a defensive copy
System.arraycopy(bytes,0,result,0,length);
return result;
}
private BOM(final byte bom[], final String description)
{
assert(bom != null) : "invalid BOM: null is not allowed";
assert(description != null) : "invalid description: null is not allowed";
assert(description.length() != 0) : "invalid description: empty string is not allowed";
this.bytes = bom;
this.description = description;
}
final byte bytes[];
private final String description;
} // BOM
/**
* Constructs a new <code>UnicodeBOMInputStream</code> that wraps the
* specified <code>InputStream</code>.
*
* @param inputStream an <code>InputStream</code>.
*
* @throws NullPointerException when <code>inputStream</code> is
* <code>null</code>.
* @throws IOException on reading from the specified <code>InputStream</code>
* when trying to detect the Unicode BOM.
*/
public UnicodeBOMInputStream(final InputStream inputStream) throws NullPointerException,
IOException
{
if (inputStream == null)
throw new NullPointerException("invalid input stream: null is not allowed");
in = new PushbackInputStream(inputStream,4);
final byte bom[] = new byte[4];
final int read = in.read(bom);
switch(read)
{
case 4:
if ((bom[0] == (byte)0xFF) &&
(bom[1] == (byte)0xFE) &&
(bom[2] == (byte)0x00) &&
(bom[3] == (byte)0x00))
{
this.bom = BOM.UTF_32_LE;
break;
}
else
if ((bom[0] == (byte)0x00) &&
(bom[1] == (byte)0x00) &&
(bom[2] == (byte)0xFE) &&
(bom[3] == (byte)0xFF))
{
this.bom = BOM.UTF_32_BE;
break;
}
case 3:
if ((bom[0] == (byte)0xEF) &&
(bom[1] == (byte)0xBB) &&
(bom[2] == (byte)0xBF))
{
this.bom = BOM.UTF_8;
break;
}
case 2:
if ((bom[0] == (byte)0xFF) &&
(bom[1] == (byte)0xFE))
{
this.bom = BOM.UTF_16_LE;
break;
}
else
if ((bom[0] == (byte)0xFE) &&
(bom[1] == (byte)0xFF))
{
this.bom = BOM.UTF_16_BE;
break;
}
default:
this.bom = BOM.NONE;
break;
}
if (read > 0)
in.unread(bom,0,read);
}
/**
* Returns the <code>BOM</code> that was detected in the wrapped
* <code>InputStream</code> object.
*
* @return a <code>BOM</code> value.
*/
public final BOM getBOM()
{
// BOM type is immutable.
return bom;
}
/**
* Skips the <code>BOM</code> that was found in the wrapped
* <code>InputStream</code> object.
*
* @return this <code>UnicodeBOMInputStream</code>.
*
* @throws IOException when trying to skip the BOM from the wrapped
* <code>InputStream</code> object.
*/
public final synchronized UnicodeBOMInputStream skipBOM() throws IOException
{
if (!skipped)
{
in.skip(bom.bytes.length);
skipped = true;
}
return this;
}
/**
* {@inheritDoc}
*/
public int read() throws IOException
{
return in.read();
}
/**
* {@inheritDoc}
*/
public int read(final byte b[]) throws IOException,
NullPointerException
{
return in.read(b,0,b.length);
}
/**
* {@inheritDoc}
*/
public int read(final byte b[],
final int off,
final int len) throws IOException,
NullPointerException
{
return in.read(b,off,len);
}
/**
* {@inheritDoc}
*/
public long skip(final long n) throws IOException
{
return in.skip(n);
}
/**
* {@inheritDoc}
*/
public int available() throws IOException
{
return in.available();
}
/**
* {@inheritDoc}
*/
public void close() throws IOException
{
in.close();
}
/**
* {@inheritDoc}
*/
public synchronized void mark(final int readlimit)
{
in.mark(readlimit);
}
/**
* {@inheritDoc}
*/
public synchronized void reset() throws IOException
{
in.reset();
}
/**
* {@inheritDoc}
*/
public boolean markSupported()
{
return in.markSupported();
}
private final PushbackInputStream in;
private final BOM bom;
private boolean skipped = false;
} // UnicodeBOMInputStream
And you’re using it this way:
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
public final class UnicodeBOMInputStreamUsage
{
public static void main(final String[] args) throws Exception
{
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("test/offending_bom.txt");
UnicodeBOMInputStream ubis = new UnicodeBOMInputStream(fis);
System.out.println("detected BOM: " + ubis.getBOM());
System.out.print("Reading the content of the file without skipping the BOM: ");
InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(ubis);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
System.out.println(br.readLine());
br.close();
isr.close();
ubis.close();
fis.close();
fis = new FileInputStream("test/offending_bom.txt");
ubis = new UnicodeBOMInputStream(fis);
isr = new InputStreamReader(ubis);
br = new BufferedReader(isr);
ubis.skipBOM();
System.out.print("Reading the content of the file after skipping the BOM: ");
System.out.println(br.readLine());
br.close();
isr.close();
ubis.close();
fis.close();
}
} // UnicodeBOMInputStreamUsage