Problem with encoding Russian text between UTF-8 and Unicode

Hello!

Not so long ago I tried to encode/decode the Russian text from Unicode to UTF-8 and back. And I discovered that Java doesn't like Russian letter 'И' ('\u0418'). Here is my code and result of its work:

class Basic
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
String s = "";
for(char ch=0x0410; ch<=0x044F; ch++)
s += ch;
System.out.println(s);
s = new String(s.getBytes("UTF-8"));
System.out.println(s);
s = new String(s.getBytes(), "UTF-8");
System.out.println(s);
}
}

What I see in my console:

АБВГДЕЖЗИЙКЛМНОПРСТУФХЦЧШЩЪЫЬЭЮЯабвгдежзийклмнопрстуфхцчшщъ ыьэюя
АБВГДЕЖЗР?ЙКЛМНОПР*СТУФХЦЧШ ЩЪЫЬР*ЮЯабвгдежзийклмнопрс туфхцчшщъыьэюя
АБВГДЕЖЗ??ЙКЛМНОПРСТУФХЦЧШЩЪЫЬЭЮЯабвгдежзийклмнопрстуфхцчшщъ ыьэюя

So, the only symbol which is distorted by this encoding/decoding process is 'И' ('\u0418'). But it bothers me very much. What could I do to avoid this problem?

The default encoding on your system is not UTF-8 (the second line of output tells you so); you should set both the encoding as well as the decoding to UTF-8; as in:

Code:

---

s= new String(s.getBytes("UTF-8"), "UTF-8");

---

kind regards,

Jos

Thank you very much. I see that I should specify charset of encoding any time not relying on the system defaults.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dyukon

Thank you very much. I see that I should specify charset of encoding any time not relying on the system defaults.

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Yep, as long as you realize that both the encoding as well as the decoding parts are equally important, that entire unicode hoopla is easy.

kind regards,

Jos