Thread: invalid byte sequence for encoding "UTF8": 0xab

"Grand, Mark D." <mgrand@emory.edu> writes:
> ... I get this message:
> ERROR:  invalid byte sequence for encoding "UTF8": 0xab
> HINT:  This error can also happen if the byte sequence does not match the encoding expected by the server, which is
controlledby "client_encoding". 

> It is complaining about the '<' character.  I do not understand why.

The ASCII code for '<' is 0x3c, not 0xab.  I am not sure what you are
actually typing; although it's suggestive that the LATIN1 code 0xab
corresponds to a symbol that looks approximately like '<<'.  The most
likely bet is that you are typing the wrong thing and using a terminal
emulator that is not set to generate UTF8-encoded characters.  You
should try to make sure that client_encoding is set to match what your
keyboard actually generates.

            regards, tom lane

On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 9:57 AM, Tom Lane<tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> The ASCII code for '<' is 0x3c, not 0xab.  I am not sure what you are
> actually typing; although it's suggestive that the LATIN1 code 0xab
> corresponds to a symbol that looks approximately like '<<'.  The most
> likely bet is that you are typing the wrong thing and using a terminal

Must be something with your mail program, because in the version I am
reading postgres is complaining about the "approximately like '<<'"
symbol.

Mark D. Grand wrote:
> I am having a vexing problem with a script I am writing to
> populate reference tables in a new database.
>
> I am running postgreSQL 8.3 with psql 8.3.7.
>
> Psql reads this SQL statement:
>
>     INSERT INTO META_AUTH.DOMAIN_META_ASSERTION (TITLE, DESCRIPTION, META_ASSERTION)
>         VALUES ('Super-User Authorization',
>                 'This allows a super-user to administer all meta-data.',
>                 'UserID «Administer» ()');
>
> and I get this message:
>
> ERROR:  invalid byte sequence for encoding "UTF8": 0xab
>
> HINT:  This error can also happen if the byte sequence does
> not match the encoding expected by the server, which is
> controlled by "client_encoding".
>
> It is complaining about the '«' character.  I do not
> understand why.  The database is created the commands
>
> CREATE DATABASE mayyou
>                 WITH OWNER=meta_auth ENCODING='UTF8';
>
> ALTER DATABASE mayyou SET client_encoding = 'UTF8';
>
> When I give psql the \encoding command, it replies
>                 UTF8
>
> Why is it complaining about this valid character code?

The database stores characters in UTF-8, and the client
expects UTF-8 characters, but presumably the characters you
feed into psql are not UTF-8.

If this is some kind of UNIX, it might be instructive to
type 'echo "«" | od -t x1' on the command line.

Also knowing the current locale might help to determine the problem.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe

It turns out that my problem was that the editor I was using (emacs) does not properly support utf8 encoding.

-----Original Message-----
From: Albe Laurenz [mailto:laurenz.albe@wien.gv.at]
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 5:59 AM
To: Grand, Mark D.; pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Subject: RE: [GENERAL] invalid byte sequence for encoding "UTF8": 0xab

Mark D. Grand wrote:
> I am having a vexing problem with a script I am writing to
> populate reference tables in a new database.
>
> I am running postgreSQL 8.3 with psql 8.3.7.
>
> Psql reads this SQL statement:
>
>     INSERT INTO META_AUTH.DOMAIN_META_ASSERTION (TITLE, DESCRIPTION, META_ASSERTION)
>         VALUES ('Super-User Authorization',
>                 'This allows a super-user to administer all meta-data.',
>                 'UserID <Administer> ()');
>
> and I get this message:
>
> ERROR:  invalid byte sequence for encoding "UTF8": 0xab
>
> HINT:  This error can also happen if the byte sequence does
> not match the encoding expected by the server, which is
> controlled by "client_encoding".
>
> It is complaining about the '<' character.  I do not
> understand why.  The database is created the commands
>
> CREATE DATABASE mayyou
>                 WITH OWNER=meta_auth ENCODING='UTF8';
>
> ALTER DATABASE mayyou SET client_encoding = 'UTF8';
>
> When I give psql the \encoding command, it replies
>                 UTF8
>
> Why is it complaining about this valid character code?

The database stores characters in UTF-8, and the client
expects UTF-8 characters, but presumably the characters you
feed into psql are not UTF-8.

If this is some kind of UNIX, it might be instructive to
type 'echo "<" | od -t x1' on the command line.

Also knowing the current locale might help to determine the problem.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe

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"Grand, Mark D." <mgrand@emory.edu> writes:

> It turns out that my problem was that the editor I was using (emacs)
> does not properly support utf8 encoding.

Emacs does support utf8 properly.
  http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ChangingEncodings

It could be I'm biased because I use emacs from CVS, which is going to
be emacs23, and is as stable as emacs has always been for me.
  http://emacs.orebokech.com/
  http://atomized.org/wp-content/cocoa-emacs-nightly/

From within emacs, to get a ton of information about char under point,
try C-x = (one line version) or M-x describe-char (full version): <
 Char: < (60, #o74, #x3c) point=1312 of 4162 (31%) <301-4163> column=66

        character: < (60, #o74, #x3c)
preferred charset: ascii (ASCII (ISO646 IRV))
       code point: 0x3C
           syntax: .     which means: punctuation
         category: .:Base, a:ASCII, l:Latin, r:Roman
      buffer code: #x3C
        file code: #x3C (encoded by coding system utf-8-emacs)
          display: by this font (glyph code)
    xft:-bitstream-Bitstream Vera Sans Mono-normal-normal-normal-*-16-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1 (#x1F)


But I guess we're off topic now.

HTH, regards,
--
dim