For that to happen you need to convert the input's encoding format to Perl's internal text format.

from Encode

$string = decode(ENCODING, OCTETS[, CHECK])

And this can already happen in an input layer when opening.

see perluniintro#Unicode-I/O

No better help, since I don't know your input's encoding.

Thank you, Rolf, that fixed both my problems.

glad you worked it out! :)

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery}

Hi Shmunzie, try this:

perl -MEncode -E 'my $text="żłóBżE"; $text = decode_utf8($text); say length($text); say encode_utf8(uc($text))'

(Note: As pointed out earlier you did not specify the encoding you have your text in, this assumes utf8 for which Encode provides sugar functions.)

G'day Schmunzie,

Using this common alias of mine:

$ alias perlu
alias perlu='perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -Mautodie=:all -Mutf8 -C -E'
[download]

I get a length of six characters reported, and converting to uppercase has no apparent problems:

$ perlu 'say length("żłóBżE"); say uc("żłóBżE")'
6
ŻŁÓBŻE

Of course, I have no idea if your problem word was embedded in your script as literal Polish characters, \x{...} characters, or \N{...} characters. Perhaps you read it from the command line; perhaps it came from an input file.