utf8 - Perl pragma to enable/disable UTF-8 in source code |
utf8 - Perl pragma to enable/disable UTF-8 in source code
use utf8; no utf8;
WARNING: The implementation of Unicode support in Perl is incomplete. See the perlunicode manpage for the exact details.
The use utf8
pragma tells the Perl parser to allow UTF-8 in the
program text in the current lexical scope. The no utf8
pragma
tells Perl to switch back to treating the source text as literal
bytes in the current lexical scope.
This pragma is primarily a compatibility device. Perl versions earlier than 5.6 allowed arbitrary bytes in source code, whereas in future we would like to standardize on the UTF-8 encoding for source text. Until UTF-8 becomes the default format for source text, this pragma should be used to recognize UTF-8 in the source. When UTF-8 becomes the standard source format, this pragma will effectively become a no-op. This pragma already is a no-op on EBCDIC platforms (where it is alright to code perl in EBCDIC rather than UTF-8).
Enabling the utf8
pragma has the following effects:
@bytes_or_chars = split //, $data; # may split to bytes if data # $data isn't UTF-8 { use utf8; # force char semantics @chars = split //, $data; # splits characters }
the perlunicode manpage, the bytes manpage
utf8 - Perl pragma to enable/disable UTF-8 in source code |