Invalid characters (square boxes) while reading a text file (encoding issue)

Problem:

While reading a text file we get square symbols in .NET for special symbols. For e.g ° .

However if the file is created\saved as Unicode then the file is read correctly.

- tried encoding.UTF-8 but still get the error string

- notepad opens up the file correctly with the special characters

Solution:

Use encoding "Windows-1252".

Sample code -

using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(filePath, System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("Windows-1252")))

{

string content = reader.ReadToEnd();

reader.Close();

return content;

}