Convert UCS-2 encoded text with 16-bit characters into 8-bit characters of the current Ansi codepage of your Windows system, on the command line with the free Open Source tool Swiss File Knife.

• Download the free Swiss File Knife Base from Sourceforge.
• Open the Windows CMD command line, Mac OS X Terminal or Linux shell.
• OS X : type mv sfk-mac-64.exe sfk and chmod +x sfk then ./sfk
• Linux: type mv sfk-linux-64.exe sfk and chmod +x sfk then ./sfk. OS X and Linux syntax may differ, check the help within the tool.

sfk wtoa in.txt
sfk iwtoa

convert UCS-2 encoded text with 16-bit characters
into 8-bit characters of the current Ansi codepage
of your Windows system.

options
  -nostop      if some chars cannot be converted
               then do not stop, show no warning,
               set return code 1 instead of 9.
  -tofile x    write output to file x
  -codes       print character codes
  -be          big endian input
  -le          little endian input
  -codepage=n  change codepage. for details
               type: sfk listcodes
  -showfail    tell which unicode characters
               failed to convert

command chaining support
  iwtoa accepts binary input from
  previous commands like xed.

aliases
  sfk ucstoansi    same as wtoa
  sfk iucstoansi   same as iwtoa

return code
   0 = ok, all characters converted.
   if conversion is incomplete:
   default: rc 9, chaining stops.
   -nostop: rc 1.

see also
  sfk sysinfo   tell active codepages
  sfk atow      Ansi to wide chars
  sfk wtou      convert to UTF-8
  sfk utow      UTF-8 to wide chars

examples
  sfk wtoa in.txt
    if in.txt contains wide character data
    print this as Ansi text to terminal.
    because characters must be converted to
    a DOS codepage for terminal output
    it is not sure that every accent or umlaut
    character is printed as expected.
  sfk wtoa in.txt -tofile out.txt
    write output to out.txt, keeping the Ansi
    encoding as is. text can then be viewed
    and edited by a text editor like Notepad++.
  sfk load in.txt +iwtoa +filter -+foo
    get all lines containing "foo".

sfk wtoa in.txt
sfk iwtoa

convert UCS-2 encoded text with 16-bit 
characters into 8-bit characters of the
current Ansi codepage of your Windows
system.

options
  -nostop      if some chars cannot be 
               converted then do not stop,
               show no warning, set return
               code 1 instead of 9.
  -tofile x    write output to file x
  -codes       print character codes
  -be          big endian input
  -le          little endian input
  -codepage=n  change codepage. for details
               type: sfk listcodes
  -showfail    tell which unicode characters
               failed to convert

command chaining support
  iwtoa accepts binary input from
  previous commands like xed.

aliases
  sfk ucstoansi    same as wtoa
  sfk iucstoansi   same as iwtoa

return code
   0 = ok, all characters converted.
   if conversion is incomplete:
   default: rc 9, chaining stops.
   -nostop: rc 1.

see also
  sfk sysinfo   tell active codepages
  sfk atow      Ansi to wide chars
  sfk wtou      convert to UTF-8
  sfk utow      UTF-8 to wide chars


examples
  sfk wtoa in.txt
    if in.txt contains wide character data
    print this as Ansi text to terminal.
    because characters must be converted to
    a DOS codepage for terminal output
    it is not sure that every accent or 
    umlaut character is printed as expected.
    
  sfk wtoa in.txt -tofile out.txt
    write output to out.txt, keeping 
    the Ansi encoding as is. text can then
    be viewed and edited by a text editor
    like Notepad++.
  sfk load in.txt +iwtoa +filter -+foo
    get all lines containing "foo".

read more about all sfk functions

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