How to specify output file encoding in Ruby?
Here's an example that outputs a file in the UTF-16LE encoding:
open("data.txt", "w:UTF-16LE")Ruby looks at the encoding of the string you are writing, and transcodes as necessary. Here's a very detailed blog post describing mechanics with excellent examples (see the section called "The Default External and Internal Encodings").
That blog also has a bunch of great information about character encoding with Ruby, including a post about encoding with Ruby 1.8.