Mark a string as UTF8 in 5.6.2

GeorgeK has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi guys, Please note that I am forced to use perl 5.6.2. I have an issue with marking strings as being UTF8. In particular, I am making use of Devel::Peek to dump the variable info and see whether they are marked as UTF8. For example consider this small program that works in 5.7.3+

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Encode;
use Devel::Peek;

my $a='AAA';
Dump($a);
$a = decode('utf8',$a);
Dump($a);
[download]

with output being

> ./utf8-1.pl
SV = PV(0x92a10a0) at 0x929ee10
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (PADBUSY,PADMY,POK,pPOK)
  PV = 0x92aea88 "AAA"\0
  CUR = 3
  LEN = 4
SV = PV(0x92a10a0) at 0x929ee10
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (PADBUSY,PADMY,POK,pPOK,UTF8)
  PV = 0x92f76c8 "AAA"\0 [UTF8 "AAA"]
  CUR = 3
  LEN = 4
[download]

Are you aware of a way to accomplish the same in 5.6.2? TIA, George

Comment on Mark a string as UTF8 in 5.6.2 Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Mark a string as UTF8 in 5.6.2 by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 24, 2011 at 20:44 UTC
`$s .= chr(0x100); chop($s);`???	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Mark a string as UTF8 in 5.6.2 by Anonymous Monk on Jun 26, 2011 at 18:01 UTC
Yup that did it! Unfortunately, I still need to replicate, somehow, what the decode call does to see whether my data will arrive on the correct format to the client. Thanks again! George	[reply]
Re: Mark a string as UTF8 in 5.6.2 by Tux (Canon) on Jun 25, 2011 at 12:38 UTC
I know you said you are forced to use 5.6.2, but I personally consider 5.8.4 the absolute minimum for reliable UTF-8 works. All older version will bite back in unexpected area's. Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn	[reply]
Re^2: Mark a string as UTF8 in 5.6.2 by Anonymous Monk on Jun 25, 2011 at 22:55 UTC
After spending the better part of yesterday and today trying to get my data to display properly on my page, I will agree with you that 5.6.2 is hopeless! Thank you all! George	[reply]
Re: Mark a string as UTF8 in 5.6.2 by Anonymous Monk on Jun 24, 2011 at 23:16 UTC
Maybe you want Unicode::String?	[reply]
Re^2: Mark a string as UTF8 in 5.6.2 by GeorgeK (Initiate) on Jun 27, 2011 at 00:24 UTC
I did try it to no avail :/ George	[reply]