I had the same problem, and worked around it by using _utf8_on() from Encode on the mysql query results. In my version, it was not exported by default, so I added '_utf8_on' to @EXPORT .
However, the Encode documentation states that utf8_on is an internal function, and "Do not use unless you know that the STRING is well-formed UTF-8." Is there a better way to do this? Also, as a suggestion to the authors/documentors of Encode: it would be helpful to have more explanation of (& warnings about) the UTF-8 flag, how/why it works, functions that manipulate it, and warnings about common problems, such as the current one. Mark > -----Original Message----- > From: Brigitte Jellinek [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 2003 06 16 8:37 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: i know it's utf-8, how can i force perl to see it that way > > > > hi! > > i'm trying to use perl + dbi + dbd::mysql + mysql with unicode. > > as far as i can tell i can write a utf8 string into the database, > and get back the same sequence of bits, only now it's a 'classical' > perl-string, not flagged as utf-8. > > the string i write into the db is 6 characters long: > "ABc\N{greek:alpha}\x{00df}\N{cyrillic:e}" > > > character unicode utf8 > hex binary > > A 0041 01000001 > B 0042 01000010 > c 0063 01100011 > greep alpha 03B1 1100111010110001 > german scharfes s 00DF 1100001110011111 > cyrrillic e 044D 1101000110001101 > > > what i get back from the db is > > binary > > A 01000001 > B 01000010 > c 01100011 > ? 11001110 > ? 10110001 > ? 11000011 > ? 00111111 > ? 11010001 > ? 00111111 > > > I have tried to convert this using > $new = decode_utf8( $fromdb ); > but all i get is an empty string. is there > some way to find out *why* this won't decode? > > or is my debugging stuff that shows me the bits in the > string just wrong: > > > sub showbits > { > my ($template, $utf, $result, $i); > $utf = is_utf8 $_[0]; > $template = $utf ? "U*" : "C*"; > foreach ( unpack($template, $_[0] ) ) > { > $result .= "\n" ; > $result .= substr( $_[0], $i, 1 ) . "=" . sprintf > ("%04X", $_) . "="; > if ( $utf and $_ > 127) { > $b = unpack("B*", substr( $_[0], $i, 1 )); > } > else { > $b = unpack("B*", pack("N", $_ )); > } > $b =~ s/^0{32}//; # leading zeros > $b =~ s/^0{16}//; > $b =~ s/^0{8}//; > $result .= $b; > $i++; > } > return $result; > } > > -- > Brigitte 'I never met a chocolate I didnt like' Jellinek > [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.horus.com/~bjelli/ > http://perlwelt.horus.at http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node=bjelli >
