In that case, the question is "why does the scalar have the utf8 flag set". If it came from a filehandle, that question is equvilent to "why is the filehandle set to be in a utf8 encoding". A binmode will probably solve your problems here.

If it didn't come from a filehandle, or marking the FH as having binary data is not a good thing, you can use $wasutf8 = Encode::_utf8_off($string);

In case you wondered, my general rule is that giving the runtime more information about what's going (by making sure the utf8 bit is set correctly on scalars, or the encoding is set correctly on filehandles) is better then forcing it to do what you want, when it has other ideas (by using bytes).

(That's not a hard and fast rule, of course...)

Warning: Unless otherwise stated, code is untested. Do not use without understanding. Code is posted in the hopes it is useful, but without warranty. All copyrights are relinquished into the public domain unless otherwise stated. I am not an angel. I am capable of error, and err on a fairly regular basis. If I made a mistake, please let me know (such as by replying to this node).

In reply to Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Warning: Unicode bytes! by theorbtwo
in thread Warning: Unicode bytes! by BrowserUk

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