Convert text file to ANSI format

Question

I am running two Powershell scripts. One Powershell script adds the host name to a text file. Other Powershell script appends the ip address of the machine to the same file. So, the .txt file looks as follows: hostname ipaddress But, this file is being saved in Unicode format by default. What can I do so that, the text file is stored in ANSI format?

I use PowerShell v2.0.

[System.Text.Encoding]::Default 

IsSingleByte : True
BodyName : iso-8859-1 
EncodingName : Western European (Windows) 
HeaderName : Windows-1252 
WebName : Windows-1252
WindowsCodePage : 1252
IsBrowserDisplay : True
IsBrowserSave : True
IsMailNewsDisplay : True
IsMailNewsSave : True
EncoderFallback : System.Text.InternalEncoderBestFitFallback
DecoderFallback : System.Text.InternalDecoderBestFitFallback
IsReadOnly : True 
CodePage : 1252

What PowerShell version do you use? What does `[System.Text.Encoding]::Default` return? How do you write to the file? — , Jul 25 '17 at 14:39

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 25 '17 at 14:29

7

Depending on how you are outputting your text you may need to set the encoding type. Using Out-File -Encoding you use the type of ASCII. This also depends on the version of Powershell you're using.

See: SS64 Out-File and Set the encoding to ANSI in PowerShell 2.0

edited Jul 25 '17 at 14:29

Mathias R. Jessen

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answered Jul 25 '17 at 14:24

Jason Snell

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score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 25 '17 at 15:10

2

The following solved my problem:

Out-File 'file.txt' -Append -Encoding Ascii

This enabled me to save the file in ANSI format.

answered Jul 25 '17 at 15:10

Mistletoe

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Convert text file to ANSI format

2 Answers2