Decode MDB Strange Chars

A workaround to solve the character decoding problem of .mdb files (MS Access)

NPM link: @el3um4s/decode-mdb-strange-chars

Install and use the package

To use the package in a project:

npm i @el3um4s/decode-mdb-strange-chars

and then in a file:

import {
  decodeString,
  decodeVBSBuffer,
} from "@el3um4s/decode-mdb-strange-chars";

import { vbs } from "./sql";

const file = path.resolve("./src/__tests__/test.mdb");

const sqlString = `SELECT * FROM [test] WHERE [ordine]=${ordine};`;

const result = await runVbsBuffer({
  vbs,
  args: [file, `"${sqlString}"`, type],
});

const decoded = decodeVBSBuffer(result);
console.log(decoded);
// {"result":[{"ordine": "157","carattere": "à","utf-8 bytes": "c3 a0","descrizione": "LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH GRAVE","codice win": "85"}]}

const codeAccess = "85";
const decodedChar = decodeString(codeAccess);
console.log(decodedChar);
// à

API

• decodeString(text: string): string decode a string of hex code to a string of characters
• decodeVBSBuffer(buffer: string[]): string decode a buffer of hex code to a string of characters

Acknowledgments

My problem is reading mdb files even when there are strange characters. This package is meant for node-mdb. It serves as an intermediate step to convert the characters obtained from run-vbs. I keep it as a separate package so that I can use it in other projects as well. And, above all, to be able to test it independently and, at the same time, keep the node-mdb code clean.