Input data string can be any encoding.

README.md

@@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ Or install it yourself as:
 Use the convenience method `BankgiroInbetalningar.parse` to parse a file:
 
 ```ruby
-res = BankgiroInbetalningar.parse('BgMaxfil4.txt')
+res = BankgiroInbetalningar.parse("BgMaxfil4.txt")
 # Or
-data = File.read("BgMaxfil4.txt")
+data = File.read("BgMaxfil4.txt").force_encoding("ISO-8859-1")
 res = BankgiroInbetalningar.parse_data(data)
 
 raise "oops" unless res.valid?
@@ -44,8 +44,11 @@ res.payments.each do |p|
 end
 ```
 
-See the specs for more details.  Note that all text is in UTF-8, as it should be,
-and not in ISO-8859-1 as Bankgirot prefers.  It is the 21st century.
+See the specs for more details.
+
+Files are expected to be ISO-8859-1 (as Bankgirot prefers), but data strings
+can be in any encoding, as long as `String#encoding` is correct. The library
+returns UTF-8. It *is* the 21st century.
 
 ## Todo / Missing features
 

lib/bankgiro_inbetalningar.rb

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 module BankgiroInbetalningar
   def self.parse(filename)
-    data = File.read(filename)
+    data = File.read(filename).force_encoding("ISO-8859-1")
     parse_data(data)
   end
 

lib/bankgiro_inbetalningar/parser.rb

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ class Parser
     attr_accessor :result
 
     def initialize(data)
-      @raw_data ||= data.encode('utf-8', 'iso-8859-1')
+      @raw_data ||= data.encode("UTF-8")
     end
 
     def run

spec/bankgiro_inbetalningar/parser_spec.rb

@@ -4,10 +4,18 @@
 module BankgiroInbetalningar
   describe Parser do
     context "parsing sample file 4" do
-      let(:data) { File.read(fixture_path('BgMaxfil4.txt')) }
+      let(:data) { data_from_file('BgMaxfil4.txt') }
       let(:parser) { Parser.new(data) }
       let(:result) { parser.run ; parser.result }
 
+      context "with non Latin-1 data" do
+        let(:data) { data_from_file('BgMaxfil4.txt').encode("UTF-8") }
+
+        it "handles that fine" do
+          result.payments[1].payer.name.should include "Olles färg"
+        end
+      end
+
       it "returns valid results" do
         result.should be_valid
       end
@@ -74,7 +82,7 @@ module BankgiroInbetalningar
 
     end
     context "parsing a broken sample file 4" do
-      let(:data) { File.read(fixture_path('BgMaxfil4_broken.txt')) }
+      let(:data) { data_from_file('BgMaxfil4_broken.txt') }
       let(:parser) { Parser.new(data) }
       let(:result) { parser.run ; parser.result }
 

spec/bankgiro_inbetalningar_spec.rb

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 
 describe BankgiroInbetalningar, ".parse_data" do
   context "parsing a minimal file" do
-    let(:data) { File.read(fixture_path('minimal.txt')) }
+    let(:data) { data_from_file('minimal.txt') }
     subject { BankgiroInbetalningar.parse_data(data) }
 
     it "finds the timestamp" do

spec/spec_helper.rb

@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 $: << File.expand_path('../../lib', __FILE__)
 require 'bankgiro_inbetalningar'
 
+def data_from_file(name)
+  File.read(fixture_path(name)).force_encoding("ISO-8859-1")
+end
+
 def fixture_path(name)
   File.expand_path("../fixtures/#{name}", __FILE__)
 end