Web/API/TextDecoder

The TextDecoder interface represents a decoder for a specific text encoding, such as UTF-8, ISO-8859-2, KOI8-R, GBK, etc. A decoder takes a stream of bytes as input and emits a stream of code points.

Examples

Representing text with typed arrays

This example shows how to decode a Chinese/Japanese character [[File:../../../../../media.prod.mdn.mozit.cloud/attachments/2019/05/21/16663/88c288547fd98ac57a68fb5f568a7d4b/2019-05-21_191907.png]], as represented by five different typed arrays: Uint8Array, Int8Array, Uint16Array, Int16Array, and Int32Array.

let utf8decoder = new TextDecoder(); // default 'utf-8' or 'utf8'

let u8arr = new Uint8Array([240, 160, 174, 183]);
let i8arr = new Int8Array([-16, -96, -82, -73]);
let u16arr = new Uint16Array([41200, 47022]);
let i16arr = new Int16Array([-24336, -18514]);
let i32arr = new Int32Array([-1213292304]);

console.log(utf8decoder.decode(u8arr));
console.log(utf8decoder.decode(i8arr));
console.log(utf8decoder.decode(u16arr));
console.log(utf8decoder.decode(i16arr));
console.log(utf8decoder.decode(i32arr));

Handling non-UTF8 text

In this example, we decode the Russian text "Привет, мир!", which means "Hello, world." In our TextDecoder() constructor, we specify the Windows-1251 character encoding, which is appropriate for Cyrillic script.

let win1251decoder = new TextDecoder('windows-1251');
let bytes = new Uint8Array([207, 240, 232, 226, 229, 242, 44, 32, 236, 232, 240, 33]);
console.log(win1251decoder.decode(bytes)); // Привет, мир!

Constructor

TextDecoder(): Returns a newly constructed TextDecoder that will generate a code point stream with the decoding method specified in parameters.

Properties

The TextDecoder interface doesn't inherit any properties.

TextDecoder.prototype.encodingRead only: Is a DOMString containing the name of the decoder, that is a string describing the method the TextDecoder will use.
TextDecoder.prototype.fatalRead only: Is a Boolean indicating whether the error mode is fatal.
TextDecoder.prototype.ignoreBOMRead only: Is a Boolean indicating whether the byte order marker is ignored.

Methods

The TextDecoder interface doesn't inherit any method.

TextDecoder.prototype.decode(): Returns a DOMString containing the text decoded with the method of the specific TextDecoder object.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
EncodingThe definition of 'TextDecoder' in that specification.	Living Standard	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`TextDecoder`	Chrome Full support 38	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support 19 Full support 19 Partial support 18 Notes' Notes' Implemented a slightly different version of the spec.	IE No support No	Opera Full support 25	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support 38	Chrome Android Full support 38	Firefox Android Full support 19 Full support 19 Partial support 18 Notes' Notes' Implemented a slightly different version of the spec.	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 3.0
`TextDecoder()` constructor	Chrome Full support 38	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support 19 Full support 19 Partial support 18 Notes' Notes' Implemented a slightly different version of the spec.	IE No support No	Opera Full support 25	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support 38	Chrome Android Full support 38	Firefox Android Full support 19 Full support 19 Partial support 18 Notes' Notes' Implemented a slightly different version of the spec.	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 3.0
`decode`	Chrome Full support 38	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support 19 Full support 19 Partial support 18 Notes' Notes' Implemented a slightly different version of the spec.	IE No support No	Opera Full support 25	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support 38	Chrome Android Full support 38	Firefox Android Full support 19 Full support 19 Partial support 18 Notes' Notes' Implemented a slightly different version of the spec.	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 3.0
`encoding`	Chrome Full support 38	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support 19 Full support 19 Partial support 18 Notes' Notes' Implemented a slightly different version of the spec.	IE No support No	Opera Full support 25	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support 38	Chrome Android Full support 38	Firefox Android Full support 19 Full support 19 Partial support 18 Notes' Notes' Implemented a slightly different version of the spec.	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 3.0
`fatal`	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support Yes	IE No support No	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
`ignoreBOM`	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support Yes	IE No support No	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
Available in workers	Chrome Full support 38	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support 20	IE No support No	Opera Full support 25	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support 38	Chrome Android Full support 38	Firefox Android Full support 20	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 3.0

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
Compatibility unknown: Compatibility unknown
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.