I'd like to know how I can retrieve the contents of a file keeping special characters with FileReader object.

<form enctype="multipart/form-data">
    <input type="file" id="file" name="file">
</form>

<script>
    $('#file').change(function () {
        var file = document.getElementById('file').files[0];

        var reader = new FileReader();

        reader.onload = function (event) {
            var file_content = event.target.result;
            console.log(file_content);
        }

        reader.readAsBinaryString(file);
    }
</script>

this code print

"line1line2"

except my file content is

line1
line2

How can I get ?

line1\nline2

I tried readAsBinaryString and readAsText methods without any success. Am I doing something wrong ? Thank you

FileReader doc

edit:

an example on JSfiddle /

The problem exists only on Firefox on mac Os X

I'd like to know how I can retrieve the contents of a file keeping special characters with FileReader object.

<form enctype="multipart/form-data">
    <input type="file" id="file" name="file">
</form>

<script>
    $('#file').change(function () {
        var file = document.getElementById('file').files[0];

        var reader = new FileReader();

        reader.onload = function (event) {
            var file_content = event.target.result;
            console.log(file_content);
        }

        reader.readAsBinaryString(file);
    }
</script>

this code print

"line1line2"

except my file content is

line1
line2

How can I get ?

line1\nline2

I tried readAsBinaryString and readAsText methods without any success. Am I doing something wrong ? Thank you

FileReader doc

edit:

an example on JSfiddle http://jsfiddle/yTgp7/

The problem exists only on Firefox on mac Os X

• javascript
• html
• filereader

• Whereabouts are you outputting your content - is it just to console, and if so which browser are you using? I've tried this on both Windows (\r\n line-endings) and Unix (\n) machines and the file is being read correctly. – Adrian Wragg Commented Sep 19, 2013 at 15:37
• @AdrianWragg I'm on Firefox 23.0.1 on mac OS X. I'll try an other browser – Guillaume Vincent Commented Sep 19, 2013 at 19:55
• here a jsfiddle jsfiddle/yTgp7 – Guillaume Vincent Commented Sep 19, 2013 at 21:37
• Throws up an alert with line breaks in (actually, double line breaks). Chrome 29, Windows 8. – Adrian Wragg Commented Sep 19, 2013 at 21:44
• my tests show that the error only appears on Firefox on OS X – Guillaume Vincent Commented Sep 20, 2013 at 6:12

1 Answer 1

This is a Firefox bug with text file containing only 'CR' as line ending.

This is not related to MacOSX, but Firefox. You have the same result under Windows if your file only contains 'CR' instead of 'LF or 'CR/LF'.

You have to replace 'CR' occurrences by 'LF' (or 'CR/LF'):

    alert(event.target.result.replace(/\r/g, "\n"));

Here is a working version of your jsFiddle : http://jsfiddle/Y56Tq/3/