Question

For some reason, lately the *.UDL files on many of my client systems are no longer compatible as they were once saved as ANSI files, which is no longer compatible with the expected UNICODE file format. The end result is an error dialog which states ‘the file is not a valid compound file’.

What is the easiest way to programatically open these files and save as a unicode file? I know I can do this by opening each one in notepad and then saving as the same file but with the ‘unicode’ selected in the encoding section of the save as dialog, but I need to do this in the program to cut down on support calls.

This problem is very easy to duplicate, just create a *.txt file in a directory, rename it to *.UDL, then edit it using the microsoft editor. Then open it in notepad and save as the file as an ANSI encoded file. Try to open the udl from the udl editor and it will tell you its corrupt. then save it (using notepad) as a Unicode encoded file and it will open again properly.

Answer 1

This is very simple to do with my TGpTextFile unit. I’ll put together a short sample and post it here.

It should also be very simple with the new Delphi 2009 – are you maybe using it?

EDIT: This his how you can do it using my stuff in pre-2009 Delphis.

var   strAnsi   : TGpTextFile;   strUnicode: TGpTextFile; begin   strAnsi := TGpTextFile.Create('c:\0\test.udl');   try     strAnsi.Reset; // you can also specify non-default 8-bit codepage here     strUnicode := TGpTextFile.Create('c:\0\test-out.udl');     try       strUnicode.Rewrite([cfUnicode]);       while not strAnsi.Eof do         strUnicode.Writeln(strAnsi.Readln);     finally FreeAndNil(strUnicode); end;   finally FreeAndNil(strAnsi); end; end; 

License: The code fragment above belongs to public domain. Use it anyway you like.