That error messages means a string that Perl thinks is in Unicode is not valid UTF-8. This is probably because it is not UTF-8 but some other character encoding.

To fix this, we need to see at least that area of code. Also, we need to know where the string is coming from. And if the script is using 'use utf8' to interpret the program source as Unicode.

To answer the subject, UTF-8 is a character encoding for representing Unicode characters. Perl uses UTF-8 as the internal representation of Unicode strings. In Perl, strings can be marked as Unicode or byte strings.


In reply to Re: What does UTF-8 mean? by iburrell
in thread What does UTF-8 mean? by Gorby

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.