Why do I get a compilation error when I try to include an Urdu string?

Question

I am trying to add an urdu string غزل as shown below:

class UnicodeCheck {
  public static void main(String args[]) {
   try {
    File f = new File("C:/Users/user/Desktop/unicodecheck.txt");
    FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(f);
    writer.write("غزل");
    writer.close();
   } catch(Exception exc) {
       exc.printStackTrace();
     }
 }
}

When I try to compile the above program I get this error.

UnicodeCheck.java:1: illegal character: \187
∩╗┐class UnicodeCheck {
 ^
UnicodeCheck.java:1: illegal character: \191
∩╗┐class UnicodeCheck {
  ^
2 errors

I do not understand this error. Why do I get this and how can I get over this error?

@Jayan do you realize that you changed the meaning of whole question ? — Suhail Gupta, Oct 11 '12 at 08:32
@ Suhail Gupta : sorry, I have fixed with better title. Essentially a file with unicode content is a different problem. When the same file is a java source code, fix is editor/using different encoding etc. — Jayan, Oct 11 '12 at 08:44
@Jayan what are you doing ? what is java source file ? do you even understand what am i asking.. — Suhail Gupta, Oct 11 '12 at 11:24
@ As I understand you are adding a java source file to have some unicode strings. The error is coming from compiler not able to intepret BOM (see Sumit's answer). The error is not a runtime one. — Jayan, Oct 11 '12 at 11:59

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 11 '12 at 22:28

The characters in the beginning of the file come from the the Byte Order Mark that some text editors like to insert into the beginning of a file. The Java compiler however does not accept files with BOM. You have two options:

Use a text editor that allows saving files in Unicode without BOM, such as Notepad++.
Use only ASCII characters in source code. Where you need Unicode characters use \uXXXX-escape codes. The JDK comes with a utility program to convert "native" text into this encoding, called native2ascii. For example,
```
writer.write("غزل");
```
would be converted into
```
writer.write("\u063a\u0632\u0644");
```

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 11 '12 at 04:29

0

It depends on the charset used by your Text editor (where you edit the java source file). Try to set it in UTF-8 format.

edited Oct 11 '12 at 04:29

pb2q

58,613
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answered Oct 11 '12 at 04:21

neo571

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1

I have already saved it in UTF-8 format. This is the reason I can see the urdu string in the .java file . – Suhail Gupta Oct 11 '12 at 08:33

Why do I get a compilation error when I try to include an Urdu string?

2 Answers2