How it works ============ This is a brief guide to navigating the code itself. First, you should read `A composite approach to language/encoding detection `__, which explains the detection algorithm and how it was derived. This will help you later when you stumble across the huge character frequency distribution tables like ``big5freq.py`` and language models like ``langcyrillicmodel.py``. The main entry point for the detection algorithm is ``universaldetector.py``, which has one class, ``UniversalDetector``. (You might think the main entry point is the ``detect`` function in ``chardet/__init__.py``, but that’s really just a convenience function that creates a ``UniversalDetector`` object, calls it, and returns its result.) There are 5 categories of encodings that ``UniversalDetector`` handles: #. ``UTF-n`` with a BOM. This includes ``UTF-8``, both BE and LE variants of ``UTF-16``, and all 4 byte-order variants of ``UTF-32``. #. Escaped encodings, which are entirely 7-bit ASCII compatible, where non-ASCII characters start with an escape sequence. Examples: ``ISO-2022-JP`` (Japanese) and ``HZ-GB-2312`` (Chinese). #. Multi-byte encodings, where each character is represented by a variable number of bytes. Examples: ``Big5`` (Chinese), ``SHIFT_JIS`` (Japanese), ``EUC-KR`` (Korean), and ``UTF-8`` without a BOM. #. Single-byte encodings, where each character is represented by one byte. Examples: ``KOI8-R`` (Russian), ``windows-1255`` (Hebrew), and ``TIS-620`` (Thai). #. ``windows-1252``, which is used primarily on Microsoft Windows; its subset, ``ISO-8859-1`` is widely used for legacy 8-bit-encoded text. chardet, like many encoding detectors, defaults to guessing this encoding when no other can be reliably established. ``UTF-n`` with a BOM -------------------- If the text starts with a BOM, we can reasonably assume that the text is encoded in ``UTF-8``, ``UTF-16``, or ``UTF-32``. (The BOM will tell us exactly which one; that’s what it’s for.) This is handled inline in ``UniversalDetector``, which returns the result immediately without any further processing. Escaped encodings ----------------- If the text contains a recognizable escape sequence that might indicate an escaped encoding, ``UniversalDetector`` creates an ``EscCharSetProber`` (defined in ``escprober.py``) and feeds it the text. ``EscCharSetProber`` creates a series of state machines, based on models of ``HZ-GB-2312``, ``ISO-2022-CN``, ``ISO-2022-JP``, and ``ISO-2022-KR`` (defined in ``escsm.py``). ``EscCharSetProber`` feeds the text to each of these state machines, one byte at a time. If any state machine ends up uniquely identifying the encoding, ``EscCharSetProber`` immediately returns the positive result to ``UniversalDetector``, which returns it to the caller. If any state machine hits an illegal sequence, it is dropped and processing continues with the other state machines. Multi-byte encodings -------------------- Assuming no BOM, ``UniversalDetector`` checks whether the text contains any high-bit characters. If so, it creates a series of “probers” for detecting multi-byte encodings, single-byte encodings, and as a last resort, ``windows-1252``. The multi-byte encoding prober, ``MBCSGroupProber`` (defined in ``mbcsgroupprober.py``), is really just a shell that manages a group of other probers, one for each multi-byte encoding: ``Big5``, ``GB2312``, ``EUC-TW``, ``EUC-KR``, ``EUC-JP``, ``SHIFT_JIS``, and ``UTF-8``. ``MBCSGroupProber`` feeds the text to each of these encoding-specific probers and checks the results. If a prober reports that it has found an illegal byte sequence, it is dropped from further processing (so that, for instance, any subsequent calls to ``UniversalDetector``.\ ``feed`` will skip that prober). If a prober reports that it is reasonably confident that it has detected the encoding, ``MBCSGroupProber`` reports this positive result to ``UniversalDetector``, which reports the result to the caller. Most of the multi-byte encoding probers are inherited from ``MultiByteCharSetProber`` (defined in ``mbcharsetprober.py``), and simply hook up the appropriate state machine and distribution analyzer and let ``MultiByteCharSetProber`` do the rest of the work. ``MultiByteCharSetProber`` runs the text through the encoding-specific state machine, one byte at a time, to look for byte sequences that would indicate a conclusive positive or negative result. At the same time, ``MultiByteCharSetProber`` feeds the text to an encoding-specific distribution analyzer. The distribution analyzers (each defined in ``chardistribution.py``) use language-specific models of which characters are used most frequently. Once ``MultiByteCharSetProber`` has fed enough text to the distribution analyzer, it calculates a confidence rating based on the number of frequently-used characters, the total number of characters, and a language-specific distribution ratio. If the confidence is high enough, ``MultiByteCharSetProber`` returns the result to ``MBCSGroupProber``, which returns it to ``UniversalDetector``, which returns it to the caller. The case of Japanese is more difficult. Single-character distribution analysis is not always sufficient to distinguish between ``EUC-JP`` and ``SHIFT_JIS``, so the ``SJISProber`` (defined in ``sjisprober.py``) also uses 2-character distribution analysis. ``SJISContextAnalysis`` and ``EUCJPContextAnalysis`` (both defined in ``jpcntx.py`` and both inheriting from a common ``JapaneseContextAnalysis`` class) check the frequency of Hiragana syllabary characters within the text. Once enough text has been processed, they return a confidence level to ``SJISProber``, which checks both analyzers and returns the higher confidence level to ``MBCSGroupProber``. Single-byte encodings --------------------- The single-byte encoding prober, ``SBCSGroupProber`` (defined in ``sbcsgroupprober.py``), is also just a shell that manages a group of other probers, one for each combination of single-byte encoding and language: ``windows-1251``, ``KOI8-R``, ``ISO-8859-5``, ``MacCyrillic``, ``IBM855``, and ``IBM866`` (Russian); ``ISO-8859-7`` and ``windows-1253`` (Greek); ``ISO-8859-5`` and ``windows-1251`` (Bulgarian); ``ISO-8859-2`` and ``windows-1250`` (Hungarian); ``TIS-620`` (Thai); ``windows-1255`` and ``ISO-8859-8`` (Hebrew). ``SBCSGroupProber`` feeds the text to each of these encoding+language-specific probers and checks the results. These probers are all implemented as a single class, ``SingleByteCharSetProber`` (defined in ``sbcharsetprober.py``), which takes a language model as an argument. The language model defines how frequently different 2-character sequences appear in typical text. ``SingleByteCharSetProber`` processes the text and tallies the most frequently used 2-character sequences. Once enough text has been processed, it calculates a confidence level based on the number of frequently-used sequences, the total number of characters, and a language-specific distribution ratio. Hebrew is handled as a special case. If the text appears to be Hebrew based on 2-character distribution analysis, ``HebrewProber`` (defined in ``hebrewprober.py``) tries to distinguish between Visual Hebrew (where the source text actually stored “backwards” line-by-line, and then displayed verbatim so it can be read from right to left) and Logical Hebrew (where the source text is stored in reading order and then rendered right-to-left by the client). Because certain characters are encoded differently based on whether they appear in the middle of or at the end of a word, we can make a reasonable guess about direction of the source text, and return the appropriate encoding (``windows-1255`` for Logical Hebrew, or ``ISO-8859-8`` for Visual Hebrew). windows-1252 ------------ If ``UniversalDetector`` detects a high-bit character in the text, but none of the other multi-byte or single-byte encoding probers return a confident result, it creates a ``Latin1Prober`` (defined in ``latin1prober.py``) to try to detect English text in a ``windows-1252`` encoding. This detection is inherently unreliable, because English letters are encoded in the same way in many different encodings. The only way to distinguish ``windows-1252`` is through commonly used symbols like smart quotes, curly apostrophes, copyright symbols, and the like. ``Latin1Prober`` automatically reduces its confidence rating to allow more accurate probers to win if at all possible.