How can I output UTF-8 from Perl?

TMTOWTDI, chose the method that best fits how you work. I use the environment method so I don't have to think about it.

In the environment:

export PERL_UNICODE=SDL

on the command line:

perl -CSDL -le 'print "\x{1815}"';

or with binmode:

binmode(STDOUT, ":utf8");          #treat as if it is UTF-8
binmode(STDIN, ":encoding(utf8)"); #actually check if it is UTF-8

or with PerlIO:

open my $fh, ">:utf8", $filename
    or die "could not open $filename: $!\n";

open my $fh, "<:encoding(utf-8)", $filename
    or die "could not open $filename: $!\n";

or with the open pragma:

use open ":encoding(utf8)";
use open IN => ":encoding(utf8)", OUT => ":utf8";

use utf8; does not enable Unicode output - it enables you to type Unicode in your program. Add this to the program, before your print() statement:

binmode(STDOUT, ":utf8");

See if that helps. That should make STDOUT output in UTF-8 instead of ordinary ASCII.


You can use the open pragma.

For eg. below sets STDOUT, STDIN & STDERR to use UTF-8....

use open qw/:std :utf8/;