ruby convert to clean strings to utf-8

gistfile1.txt

  # Converting ASCII-8BIT to UTF-8 based domain-specific guesses
  if new_value.is_a? String
    begin
      # Try it as UTF-8 directly
      cleaned = new_value.dup.force_encoding('UTF-8')
      unless cleaned.valid_encoding?
        # Some of it might be old Windows code page
        cleaned = new_value.encode( 'UTF-8', 'Windows-1252' )
      end
      new_value = cleaned
    rescue EncodingError
      # Force it to UTF-8, throwing out invalid bits
      new_value.encode!( 'UTF-8', invalid: :replace, undef: :replace )
    end
  end