Shapefile: SHAPE_ENCODING

[peifer]

I noted that without SHAPE_ENCODING=UTF-8, the driver defaults to writing new dbf files in IS0-8859-1 encoding. Wouldn't it be better to default to UTF-8? Difficult terrain, I know. Just to let you know that most people I know need to handle more characters than are available in the "Western European" character set.

Independent of the above question: could it make sense to generate .cpg files while writing new shapefiles? (... as ogr2ogr also seems to honour existing ones).

[rouault]

try adding "-lco ENCODING=UTF-8" to the command line. SHAPE_ENCODING mostly affects the the reading part of the shapefile driver

[peifer]

Hmm. Will it help (I guess: not) to do:

$ export ENCODING=UTF-8

The documentation [1] says that SHAPE_ENCODING makes a difference while opening files. Is creating shapefiles something different to opening non-existing ones?

And if you could comment on the "cpg part" of my question.. Thanks!

[1] http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/ConfigOptions#SHAPE_ENCODING

[rouault]

Did you have a look at  http://gdal.org/ogr/drv_shapefile.html which explains (succintely!) both the SHAPE_ENCODING config options and the ENCODING layer creation option ? The ConfigOptions wiki page is just a catalog, and doesn't contain all details.

Yes, -lco ENCODING=UTF-8 produces a .cpg file because it is not a code recognized by the DBF format.

[peifer]

Sorry, I misjudged the ConfigOptions page as being a convenient way to have a detailed overview across the various GDAL/OGR config options. I did read actually read drv_shapefile.html at some point in time, but I keep forgetting to revisit it. I will put a recurring reminder in my calendar.

I close the ticket and put the marker on WorksForMe?. Putting it on Invalid would be too depressing ;-)

[rouault]

Feel free to edit ConfigOptions to mention that for the writing part, the ENCODING layer creation option should be rather used, and add a link to the shapefile driver page. That's the put of a wiki ;-)

[peifer]

Replying to rouault:

Feel free to edit ConfigOptions...

I'll think about it. If I understood correctly, the Wiki pages are a loose collection of GDAL wisdom contributed by a loose community of GDAL users. I wonder if the collection wouldn't become even looser, if I start contributing. So far I only made 2 Wiki edits, where I found some content to be factually wrong. I think I will limit myself to this type of Wiki edits.