That's one of the first things that got me when I first started exploring bytes vs. utf8 when it came out.

The use bytes does not affect the way length works.

Rather, the $txt value is already marked as to whether it is byte or char oriented.

It really bugged me that there was no way to tell which way a string was oriented (prior to 5.8, or adding the Scalar::Utils module (IIRC the name), or more importantly in cases like this of setting the flag.

I don't know off hand if Scalar::Utils can write the desired flag setting. If not, the way we've done it 'till now is with the "taint-like trick" of matching the whole string with a trivial pattern in parens. The resulting $1 will have the byte/char persuasion that the regex was compiled under (use utf8 or no utf8). I think the bytes pragma had nothing to do with it. That may have changed in 5.8.

—John

In reply to Re: use bytes and length problem by John M. Dlugosz
in thread use bytes and length problem by muad33b

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