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/DOM

document.characterSet

The Document.characterSet read-only property returns the character encoding of the document that it's currently rendered with. (A character encoding is a set of characters and how to interpret bytes into those characters.)

A “character set” and a “character encoding” are related, but different. Despite the name of this property, it returns the encoding.

Users can override the developer-specified encoding inside the Content-Type header or inline like <meta charset="utf-8">, such as with Firefox's View → Text Encoding menu. This override is provided to fix incorrect developer-specified encodings that result in garbled text.

The properties document.charset and document.inputEncoding are legacy aliases for document.characterSet. Do not use them any more.

Syntax

var string = document.characterSet;

Examples

<button onclick="console.log(document.characterSet);">
  Log character encoding
</button>
<!-- displays document's character encoding in the dev console, such as "ISO-8859-1" or "UTF-8" -->

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
DOM
The definition of 'characterSet' in that specification.		 Living Standard Initial definition.

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

Desktop
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support 45
45
Yes
charset alias was made read-only in 45.
Uses the non-standard name: charset
Yes
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
Yes
Yes
Yes
Uses the non-standard name: charset
?
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
Yes
Yes
44
Uses the non-standard name: charset
Yes
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
?
?
?
Uses the non-standard name: charset
?
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
?
?
?
Uses the non-standard name: charset
?
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
?
?
9
Uses the non-standard name: charset
?
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
Mobile
Android webview Chrome for Android Edge Mobile Firefox for Android Opera for Android iOS Safari Samsung Internet
Basic support 45
45
Yes
Uses the non-standard name: charset
Yes
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
45
45
Yes
Uses the non-standard name: charset
Yes
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
Yes
Yes
Yes
Uses the non-standard name: charset
?
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
Yes
Yes
44
Uses the non-standard name: charset
Yes
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
?
?
?
Uses the non-standard name: charset
?
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
?
?
?
Uses the non-standard name: charset
?
Uses the non-standard name: inputEncoding
?

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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/document/characterSet