Get-FileEncoding.ps1

##############################################################################
##
## Get-FileEncoding
##
## From Windows PowerShell Cookbook (O'Reilly)
## by Lee Holmes (http://www.leeholmes.com/guide)
##
##############################################################################

<#

.SYNOPSIS

Gets the encoding of a file

.EXAMPLE

Get-FileEncoding.ps1 .\UnicodeScript.ps1

BodyName          : unicodeFFFE
EncodingName      : Unicode (Big-Endian)
HeaderName        : unicodeFFFE
WebName           : unicodeFFFE
WindowsCodePage   : 1200
IsBrowserDisplay  : False
IsBrowserSave     : False
IsMailNewsDisplay : False
IsMailNewsSave    : False
IsSingleByte      : False
EncoderFallback   : System.Text.EncoderReplacementFallback
DecoderFallback   : System.Text.DecoderReplacementFallback
IsReadOnly        : True
CodePage          : 1201

#>

param(
    ## The path of the file to get the encoding of.
    $Path
)

Set-StrictMode -Version Latest

## The hashtable used to store our mapping of encoding bytes to their
## name. For example, "255-254 = Unicode"
$encodings = @{}

## Find all of the encodings understood by the .NET Framework. For each,
## determine the bytes at the start of the file (the preamble) that the .NET
## Framework uses to identify that encoding.
$encodingMembers = [System.Text.Encoding] |
    Get-Member -Static -MemberType Property

$encodingMembers | Foreach-Object {
    $encodingBytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::($_.Name).GetPreamble() -join '-'
    $encodings[$encodingBytes] = $_.Name
}

## Find out the lengths of all of the preambles.
$encodingLengths = $encodings.Keys | Where-Object { $_ } |
    Foreach-Object { ($_ -split "-").Count }

## Assume the encoding is UTF7 by default
$result = "UTF7"

## Go through each of the possible preamble lengths, read that many
## bytes from the file, and then see if it matches one of the encodings
## we know about.
foreach($encodingLength in $encodingLengths | Sort -Descending)
{
    $bytes = (Get-Content -encoding byte -readcount $encodingLength $path)[0]
    $encoding = $encodings[$bytes -join '-']

    ## If we found an encoding that had the same preamble bytes,
    ## save that output and break.
    if($encoding)
    {
        $result = $encoding
        break
    }
}

## Finally, output the encoding.
[System.Text.Encoding]::$result