Non ASCII characters

Ask Questions Programming
, , ,
1

Hello,

I have a Question about using WSTRING. How I can operate with WSTRING? I need to use Czech characters like “ěščřžýáíé”. I am not able to write any of these characters to watch (it’s just no typing).

AS 6.7:

  • Var def: obrazek
  • Watch: obrazek
  • MappView: obrazek
  • Var def in AS Code: obrazek

AS Code: Always bad

  • AS Code: obrazek
  • AS Code after reopen: obrazek
  • Var def in AS6.7: obrazek or obrazek
  • Watch: obrazek
  • MappView: obrazek

MappView: It’s for now only way, how to write it.

  • MappView: obrazek
  • Watch: obrazek - It’s showing correct!!!

Some tips, how to do it correctly? Using *.tmx files? I need it to use it also in ladder program.

2

If you use mappView, you should use tmx files.
tmx files are utf8 and you can watch the strings in mappView.
In the AS-watch the string is only visible after converting it to c null terminated string with functions from the AsHttp library (httpUtf8ToString()).

3

Ok. I solve MappView to use tmx files, so use string and ‘$$IAT/…’ and it’s PLC language independent :slight_smile:

But it’s not solving using it in PLC program without MappView. I try “ArTextSysGetText”, but’s it’s not user friendly. I want some way, how to write in program/watch “ěščřžýáíé” without tmx and converting utf-8 to wstring in program.

4

Hi @NovotnyJ ,

i am not sure if i fully understand your question …

WSTRING is just a container for two-byte characters and doesn’t say anything about the character encoding inside.

So it’s up to the corresponding HMI, Browser, Client etc. what characters are shown.
Typicall today’s Software expects Unicode – Wikipedia or UTF-8 – Wikipedia.

You can see what’s inside a WSTRING by overlaying it by an UINT - array:

```
VAR
unicode : REFERENCE TO ARRAY[0..19] OF UINT;
MyWstring : WSTRING[80];
MyString : STRING[80];
END_VAR
```

image
image1065×587 35.4 KB

The AS editors are not capable to handle two-character text files.
To my knowledge AS uses Windows-1250 – Wikipedia (some editors call that ‘ANSI’):

Since also the watch window can only interprete 1-byte strings it shows the hex digit instead, e.g. ‘š’ is $9a = 154 dec in Windows-1250 codepage.

→ you have to use the ‘$xxxx’ method in watch window

5

Hi @christoph.hilchenbac ,

I understand unicode, but I know the way, how to write it in code like var := "ěščřžýáíé" or in watch without $xxxx.

I try to copy string from watch and paste after and it’s break whole string. I have hope, that there is some way, how to do it, because the monitor show it correctly, but how do it in reverse.

6

I tried experimenting a little more. The Watch window obviously uses ISO 8859-1 – Wikipedia for WSTRING.

Some of the Czech characters are in there but not all.

There is a range of values that is not defined and AS uses the hex representation here.

The right codepage for Czech is ISO 8859-2 – Wikipedia.

But: when using STRING all characters can be seen. So it seem to use Windows-1252 – Wikipedia - that’s weird.

I’m a little at a loss here. This seems like something you should take up with your local B&R support team.

(Edit: tests were done with AS 6.7.0.187 in German Windows 11)

7

HI @NovotnyJ , is your issue answered? can you update us with final conlusion and maybe mark it as a solution?

8

If I remember good, I skip using Wstring like this and instead of this I am using text system ‘$$IAT/..’ for all.