Web/API/TextDecoder/TextDecoder

The TextDecoder() constructor returns a newly created TextDecoder object for the encoding specified in parameter.

If the value for utfLabel is unknown, or is one of the two values leading to a 'replacement' decoding algorithm ( "iso-2022-cn" or "iso-2022-cn-ext"), a DOMException with the "TypeError" value is thrown.

Syntax

decoder = new TextDecoder(utfLabel, options); 

Parameters

utfLabelOptional

Is a DOMString, defaulting to "utf-8", containing the label of the encoder. Each label is associated with a specific encoding type:

Possible values of utfLabel	Encoding
"unicode-1-1-utf-8", "utf-8", "utf8"	'utf-8'
"866", "cp866", "csibm866", "ibm866"	'ibm866'
"csisolatin2", "iso-8859-2", "iso-ir-101", "iso8859-2", "iso88592", "iso_8859-2", "iso_8859-2:1987", "l2", "latin2"	'iso-8859-2'
"csisolatin3", "iso-8859-3", "iso-ir-109", "iso8859-3", "iso88593", "iso_8859-3", "iso_8859-3:1988", "l3", "latin3"	'iso-8859-3'
"csisolatin4", "iso-8859-4", "iso-ir-110", "iso8859-4", "iso88594", "iso_8859-4", "iso_8859-4:1988", "l4", "latin4"	'iso-8859-4'
"csisolatincyrillic", "cyrillic", "iso-8859-5", "iso-ir-144", "iso88595", "iso_8859-5", "iso_8859-5:1988"	'iso-8859-5'
"arabic", "asmo-708", "csiso88596e", "csiso88596i", "csisolatinarabic", "ecma-114", "iso-8859-6", "iso-8859-6-e", "iso-8859-6-i", "iso-ir-127", "iso8859-6", "iso88596", "iso_8859-6", "iso_8859-6:1987"	'iso-8859-6'
"csisolatingreek", "ecma-118", "elot_928", "greek", "greek8", "iso-8859-7", "iso-ir-126", "iso8859-7", "iso88597", "iso_8859-7", "iso_8859-7:1987", "sun_eu_greek"	'iso-8859-7'
"csiso88598e", "csisolatinhebrew", "hebrew", "iso-8859-8", "iso-8859-8-e", "iso-ir-138", "iso8859-8", "iso88598", "iso_8859-8", "iso_8859-8:1988", "visual"	'iso-8859-8'
"csiso88598i", "iso-8859-8-i", "logical"	'iso-8859-8i'
"csisolatin6", "iso-8859-10", "iso-ir-157", "iso8859-10", "iso885910", "l6", "latin6"	'iso-8859-10'
"iso-8859-13", "iso8859-13", "iso885913"	'iso-8859-13'
"iso-8859-14", "iso8859-14", "iso885914"	'iso-8859-14'
"csisolatin9", "iso-8859-15", "iso8859-15", "iso885915", "l9", "latin9"	'iso-8859-15'
"iso-8859-16"	'iso-8859-16'
"cskoi8r", "koi", "koi8", "koi8-r", "koi8_r"	'koi8-r'
"koi8-u"	'koi8-u'
"csmacintosh", "mac", "macintosh", "x-mac-roman"	'macintosh'
"dos-874", "iso-8859-11", "iso8859-11", "iso885911", "tis-620", "windows-874"	'windows-874'
"cp1250", "windows-1250", "x-cp1250"	'windows-1250'
"cp1251", "windows-1251", "x-cp1251"	'windows-1251'
"ansi_x3.4-1968", "ascii", "cp1252", "cp819", "csisolatin1", "ibm819", "iso-8859-1", "iso-ir-100", "iso8859-1", "iso88591", "iso_8859-1", "iso_8859-1:1987", "l1", "latin1", "us-ascii", "windows-1252", "x-cp1252"	'windows-1252'
"cp1253", "windows-1253", "x-cp1253"	'windows-1253'
"cp1254", "csisolatin5", "iso-8859-9", "iso-ir-148", "iso8859-9", "iso88599", "iso_8859-9", "iso_8859-9:1989", "l5", "latin5", "windows-1254", "x-cp1254"	'windows-1254'
"cp1255", "windows-1255", "x-cp1255"	'windows-1255'
"cp1256", "windows-1256", "x-cp1256"	'windows-1256'
"cp1257", "windows-1257", "x-cp1257"	'windows-1257'
"cp1258", "windows-1258", "x-cp1258"	'windows-1258'
"x-mac-cyrillic", "x-mac-ukrainian"	'x-mac-cyrillic'
"chinese", "csgb2312", "csiso58gb231280", "gb2312", "gb_2312", "gb_2312-80", "gbk", "iso-ir-58", "x-gbk"	'gbk'
"gb18030"	'gb18030'
"hz-gb-2312"	'hz-gb-2312'
"big5", "big5-hkscs", "cn-big5", "csbig5", "x-x-big5"	'big5'
"cseucpkdfmtjapanese", "euc-jp", "x-euc-jp"	'euc-jp'
"csiso2022jp", "iso-2022-jp" Note: Firefox used to accept iso-2022-jp-2 sequences silently when an iso-2022-jp decoder was instantiated, however this was removed in version 56 to simplify the API, as no other browsers support it and no pages seem to use it.	'iso-2022-jp'
"csshiftjis", "ms_kanji", "shift-jis", "shift_jis", "sjis", "windows-31j", "x-sjis"	'shift-jis'
"cseuckr", "csksc56011987", "euc-kr", "iso-ir-149", "korean", "ks_c_5601-1987", "ks_c_5601-1989", "ksc5601", "ksc_5601", "windows-949"	'euc-kr'
"csiso2022kr", "iso-2022-kr"	'iso-2022-kr'
"utf-16be"	'utf-16be'
"utf-16", "utf-16le"	'utf-16le'
"x-user-defined"	'x-user-defined'
"iso-2022-cn", "iso-2022-cn-ext"	'replacement'

optionsOptional

Is a TextDecoderOptions dictionary with the property:

fatal

A Boolean flag indicating if the TextDecoder.decode() method must throw a DOMException with the "EncodingError" value when an coding error is found. It defaults to false.

Example

var textDecoder1 = new TextDecoder("iso-8859-2");
var textDecoder2 = new TextDecoder();
var textDecoder3 = new TextDecoder("csiso2022kr", {fatal: true}); // Allows EncodingError exception to be thrown.
var textDecoder4 = new TextDecoder("iso-2022-cn"); // Throw a TypeError exception.

Specifications

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

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

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() 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

Legend

Full support  

Full support

No support  

No support

Compatibility unknown  

Compatibility unknown

See implementation notes.'

See implementation notes.

See also

• The TextDecoder interface it belongs to.

TextDecoder() by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.