#!/usr/bin/env perl use v5.14; use warnings; use utf8; binmode STDOUT, 'utf8'; my $o_umlaut1 = "\x{F6}"; my $o_umlaut2 = "\x{6F}\x{308}"; my $string1 = "זנ" . $o_umlaut1; my $string2 = "זנ" . $o_umlaut2; say "length of $string1 is ", length($string1); say "length of $string2 is ", length($string2);