# fexcel

A simple command-line tool to sanitize invalid UTF-8 sequences from input streams.

## Overview

`fexcel` reads data from stdin, replaces any invalid UTF-8 sequences with the Unicode replacement character (�), and writes the sanitized output to stdout. This is particularly useful when working with files that may contain mixed or invalid encodings, such as Windows-exported CSV files.

## Installation

```bash
mise run install # or
cargo install --path . --force
```

Or build from source:

```bash
cargo build --release
```

The binary will be available at `target/release/fexcel`.

## Usage

Use `fexcel` as a pipe filter to clean input before passing it to tools that require valid UTF-8:

```bash
cat my-windows-exported.csv | fexcel | csvlens
```

Without `fexcel`, tools like `csvlens` may fail with invalid UTF-8 errors. By piping through `fexcel` first, you can safely view and process files with encoding issues.

### Additional Examples

Clean a file and save the output:
```bash
cat problematic-file.txt | fexcel > cleaned-file.txt
```

Use with any UTF-8 sensitive tool:
```bash
cat messy-data.log | fexcel | grep "pattern"
```

## License

See LICENSE file for details.