primitive_errinfo

primitive_errinfo returns important information regarding the last error as a 5-element array:

[result, enc1, enc2, error_bytes, readagain_bytes]

result is the last result of primitive_convert.

Other elements are only meaningful when result is :invalid_byte_sequence, :incomplete_input or :undefined_conversion.

enc1 and enc2 indicate a conversion step as a pair of strings. For example, a converter from EUC-JP to ISO-8859-1 converts a string as follows: EUC-JP -> UTF-8 -> ISO-8859-1. So [enc1, enc2] is either [“EUC-JP”, “UTF-8”] or [“UTF-8”, “ISO-8859-1”].

error_bytes and readagain_bytes indicate the byte sequences which caused the error. error_bytes is discarded portion. readagain_bytes is buffered portion which is read again on next conversion.

Example:

# \xff is invalid as EUC-JP.
ec = Encoding::Converter.new("EUC-JP", "Shift_JIS")
ec.primitive_convert(src="\xff", dst="", nil, 10)                       
p ec.primitive_errinfo
#=> [:invalid_byte_sequence, "EUC-JP", "UTF-8", "\xFF", ""]

# HIRAGANA LETTER A (\xa4\xa2 in EUC-JP) is not representable in ISO-8859-1.
# Since this error is occur in UTF-8 to ISO-8859-1 conversion,
# error_bytes is HIRAGANA LETTER A in UTF-8 (\xE3\x81\x82).
ec = Encoding::Converter.new("EUC-JP", "ISO-8859-1")
ec.primitive_convert(src="\xa4\xa2", dst="", nil, 10)
p ec.primitive_errinfo
#=> [:undefined_conversion, "UTF-8", "ISO-8859-1", "\xE3\x81\x82", ""]

# partial character is invalid
ec = Encoding::Converter.new("EUC-JP", "ISO-8859-1")
ec.primitive_convert(src="\xa4", dst="", nil, 10)
p ec.primitive_errinfo
#=> [:incomplete_input, "EUC-JP", "UTF-8", "\xA4", ""]

# Encoding::Converter::PARTIAL_INPUT prevents invalid errors by
# partial characters.
ec = Encoding::Converter.new("EUC-JP", "ISO-8859-1")
ec.primitive_convert(src="\xa4", dst="", nil, 10, Encoding::Converter::PARTIAL_INPUT)                 
p ec.primitive_errinfo
#=> [:source_buffer_empty, nil, nil, nil, nil]

# \xd8\x00\x00@ is invalid as UTF-16BE because
# no low surrogate after high surrogate (\xd8\x00).
# It is detected by 3rd byte (\00) which is part of next character.
# So the high surrogate (\xd8\x00) is discarded and
# the 3rd byte is read again later.
# Since the byte is buffered in ec, it is dropped from src.
ec = Encoding::Converter.new("UTF-16BE", "UTF-8")
ec.primitive_convert(src="\xd8\x00\x00@", dst="", nil, 10)
p ec.primitive_errinfo
#=> [:invalid_byte_sequence, "UTF-16BE", "UTF-8", "\xD8\x00", "\x00"]
p src
#=> "@"

# Similar to UTF-16BE, \x00\xd8@\x00 is invalid as UTF-16LE.
# The problem is detected by 4th byte.
ec = Encoding::Converter.new("UTF-16LE", "UTF-8")
ec.primitive_convert(src="\x00\xd8@\x00", dst="", nil, 10)
p ec.primitive_errinfo
#=> [:invalid_byte_sequence, "UTF-16LE", "UTF-8", "\x00\xD8", "@\x00"]
p src
#=> ""