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utf8(3)
NAME
  utf8 - Perl pragma to enable/disable UTF-8 in source code

SYNOPSIS
      use utf8;
      no utf8;

DESCRIPTION
  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 in the source text that have their high-bit set will be treated
      as being part of a literal UTF-8 character.  This includes most
      literals such as identifiers, string constants, constant regular
      expression patterns and package names.

  ·   In the absence of inputs marked as UTF-8, regular expressions within
      the scope of this pragma will default to using character semantics
      instead of byte semantics.

	  @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
	  }

SEE ALSO
  the perlunicode manpage, the bytes manpage

Index for Section 3

Alphabetical listing for U

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