PHP – Return an array of all supported encodings with mb_list_encodings()

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The mb_list_encodings() function in PHP returns an array of all supported character encodings available in the multibyte string extension. This function is part of PHP's mbstring extension and is available in PHP 5.0.0 and higher versions.

Syntax

array mb_list_encodings()

Parameters

The mb_list_encodings() function takes no parameters.

Return Value

This function returns a numerically indexed array containing the names of all supported encodings as strings.

Example

Here's how to use mb_list_encodings() to get all supported encodings ?

<?php
   $encodings = mb_list_encodings();
   echo "Total supported encodings: " . count($encodings) . "\n";
   
   // Display first 10 encodings
   echo "First 10 encodings:\n";
   for($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) {
       echo "[$i] => " . $encodings[$i] . "\n";
   }
?>

The output will be ?

Total supported encodings: 87
First 10 encodings:
[0] => pass
[1] => auto
[2] => wchar
[3] => byte2be
[4] => byte2le
[5] => byte4be
[6] => byte4le
[7] => BASE64
[8] => UUENCODE
[9] => HTML-ENTITIES

Complete Output

The complete array contains all 87 supported encodings ?

array(87) { 
  [0]=> string(4) "pass"
  [1]=> string(4) "auto"
  [2]=> string(5) "wchar" 
  [3]=> string(7) "byte2be" 
  [4]=> string(7) "byte2le" 
  [5]=> string(7) "byte4be" 
  [6]=> string(7) "byte4le" 
  [7]=> string(6) "BASE64" 
  [8]=> string(8) "UUENCODE" 
  [9]=> string(13) "HTML-ENTITIES" 
  [10]=> string(16) "Quoted-Printable" 
  [11]=> string(4) "7bit" 
  [12]=> string(4) "8bit" 
  [13]=> string(5) "UCS-4" 
  [14]=> string(7) "UCS-4BE" 
  [15]=> string(7) "UCS-4LE" 
  [16]=> string(5) "UCS-2" 
  [17]=> string(7) "UCS-2BE" 
  [18]=> string(7) "UCS-2LE" 
  [19]=> string(6) "UTF-32" 
  [20]=> string(8) "UTF-32BE" 
  [21]=> string(8) "UTF-32LE" 
  [22]=> string(6) "UTF-16" 
  [23]=> string(8) "UTF-16BE" 
  [24]=> string(8) "UTF-16LE" 
  [25]=> string(5) "UTF-8" 
  [26]=> string(5) "UTF-7" 
  [27]=> string(9) "UTF7-IMAP" 
  [28]=> string(5) "ASCII" 
  [29]=> string(6) "EUC-JP" 
  [30]=> string(4) "SJIS" 
  [31]=> string(9) "eucJP-win" 
  [32]=> string(11) "EUC-JP-2004" 
  [33]=> string(8) "SJIS-win" 
  [34]=> string(18) "SJIS-Mobile#DOCOMO" 
  [35]=> string(16) "SJIS-Mobile#KDDI" 
  [36]=> string(20) "SJIS-Mobile#SOFTBANK" 
  [37]=> string(8) "SJIS-mac" 
  [38]=> string(9) "SJIS-2004" 
  [39]=> string(19) "UTF-8-Mobile#DOCOMO" 
  [40]=> string(19) "UTF-8-Mobile#KDDI-A" 
  [41]=> string(19) "UTF-8-Mobile#KDDI-B" 
  [42]=> string(21) "UTF-8-Mobile#SOFTBANK" 
  [43]=> string(5) "CP932" 
  [44]=> string(7) "CP51932" 
  [45]=> string(3) "JIS" 
  [46]=> string(11) "ISO-2022-JP" 
  [47]=> string(14) "ISO-2022-JP-MS" 
  [48]=> string(7) "GB18030" 
  [49]=> string(12) "Windows-1252" 
  [50]=> string(12) "Windows-1254"
  [51]=> string(10) "ISO-8859-1" 
  [52]=> string(10) "ISO-8859-2" 
  [53]=> string(10) "ISO-8859-3" 
  [54]=> string(10) "ISO-8859-4" 
  [55]=> string(10) "ISO-8859-5" 
  [56]=> string(10) "ISO-8859-6" 
  [57]=> string(10) "ISO-8859-7" 
  [58]=> string(10) "ISO-8859-8" 
  [59]=> string(10) "ISO-8859-9" 
  [60]=> string(11) "ISO-8859-10" 
  [61]=> string(11) "ISO-8859-13" 
  [62]=> string(11) "ISO-8859-14" 
  [63]=> string(11) "ISO-8859-15" 
  [64]=> string(11) "ISO-8859-16" 
  [65]=> string(6) "EUC-CN" 
  [66]=> string(5) "CP936" 
  [67]=> string(2) "HZ" 
  [68]=> string(6) "EUC-TW" 
  [69]=> string(5) "BIG-5" 
  [70]=> string(5) "CP950" 
  [71]=> string(6) "EUC-KR" 
  [72]=> string(3) "UHC" 
  [73]=> string(11) "ISO-2022-KR" 
  [74]=> string(12) "Windows-1251" 
  [75]=> string(5) "CP866" 
  [76]=> string(6) "KOI8-R" 
  [77]=> string(6) "KOI8-U" 
  [78]=> string(9) "ArmSCII-8" 
  [79]=> string(5) "CP850" 
  [80]=> string(6) "JIS-ms" 
  [81]=> string(16) "ISO-2022-JP-2004" 
  [82]=> string(23) "ISO-2022-JP-MOBILE#KDDI" 
  [83]=> string(7) "CP50220" 
  [84]=> string(10) "CP50220raw" 
  [85]=> string(7) "CP50221" 
  [86]=> string(7) "CP50222" 
}

Common Use Cases

This function is useful for:

• Checking if a specific encoding is supported before using it
• Building dynamic encoding selection menus
• Debugging multibyte string operations
• Validating user-provided encoding names

Conclusion

The mb_list_encodings() function provides a comprehensive list of all character encodings supported by PHP's mbstring extension. Use it to programmatically determine available encodings for your application's internationalization needs.