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Encoding Detector

Encoding Detector

Rasmus Hogslätt

|
7 installs
| (0) | Free
Warns you when opening files that are not in a safe, configurable encoding like UTF-8 or ASCII.
Installation
Launch VS Code Quick Open (Ctrl+P), paste the following command, and press enter.
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More Info

VS Code Encoding Detector

Version License

This extension automatically detects file encodings using Python's chardet library and displays a prominent warning in the status bar for any file not encoded in a "safe" format (like ASCII or UTF-8). It helps prevent accidental character corruption when working in codebases with mixed or legacy encodings.

Features

  • 🚦 Status Bar Indicator: Instantly see a file's detected encoding in the bottom-right corner of VS Code.
  • ⚠️ Configurable Warnings: Get a visual warning (orange background) for any encoding not in your configured "safe list".
  • 🔍 Automatic Detection: When you open a file or switch tabs, the encoding is detected automatically.
  • ⚙️ Customizable: You can easily add encodings (e.g., iso-8859-1) to your safe list via VS Code settings.

Prerequisites

You must have Python 3 and the chardet library installed and available in your system's PATH.

# Install chardet using pip for Python 3
pip3 install chardet
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