Special Character in Java

Question

How can i use special characters in java? They belong under the Cp1252 Character encoding. I try to use them in a message, but i cant use them.

Characters like: " ︻ー┳═デ "

Are you trying to write the characters in the source code or e.g. printing them to output? Can you please post some code showing how you try to use the characters. — Nicholas, Sep 16 '12 at 09:07
@ ninjalj when i try to save it, it gives the CP1252 error @ Nicholas i use an external API. player.sendMessage(ChatColor.BLUE + victim.getName() + ChatColor.WHITE + "︻デ┳═ー" + ChatColor.RED + attacker.getName()); — user1621988, Sep 16 '12 at 09:11
Neither are `U+FE3B PRESENTATION FORM FOR VERTICAL LEFT BLACK LENTICULAR BRACKET`, `U+30FC KATAKANA-HIRAGANA PROLONGED SOUND MARK `, `U+2533 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY DOWN AND HORIZONTAL`, `U+2550 BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE HORIZONTAL` — ninjalj, Sep 16 '12 at 09:12
You SHOULD specify explicitly your output (and input) encoding. — ninjalj, Sep 16 '12 at 09:13

David Soroko · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-16T09:26:22.920

3

Use the associated UTF values, for example looking up 'デ' on http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/search.htm gives the value of \u30C7 so you can:

System.out.println( "\u30C7" );  // as string

System.out.println( '\u30C7' ); // as char

edited Sep 16 '12 at 09:26

answered Sep 16 '12 at 09:13

David Soroko

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System.out.println(\u30C7); -> Cant resolve System.out.println("\u30C7"); -> output: ? How can i use those UTF properly? – user1621988 Sep 16 '12 at 09:16
Okay, Both outputs are ?, how can fix that? – user1621988 Sep 16 '12 at 09:32
Change the encoding of the stdout display. – nullpotent Sep 16 '12 at 09:36
Sorry im really new to UTF/encoding/characters, how can I accomplish it? – user1621988 Sep 16 '12 at 09:38
Getting an '?' as the output, indicates that the environment can not render the character properly. In other words, the program works correctly but the visual representation of the character is not present. In what environment are you running your example? – David Soroko Sep 16 '12 at 09:42
Where are you outputting the standard out stream? – nullpotent Sep 16 '12 at 09:42
Eclipse IDE - Java 7 In just a test class. public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.println( '\uFE3B' ); System.out.println( "\uFE3B" ); } output: ? ? – user1621988 Sep 16 '12 at 09:43
I have the same setup on windows 7 and it prints fine for me. What OS are you using? – David Soroko Sep 16 '12 at 10:11
Win7 (64x), Eclipse IDE Juno Java 7 – user1621988 Sep 16 '12 at 10:14
Set console encoding to UTF-8, does this help? http://www.mkyong.com/java/how-to-display-chinese-character-in-eclipse-console/ – David Soroko Sep 16 '12 at 10:41
NP. There is a way to set it up for eclipse globally so you don't have to do this for every test separately. – David Soroko Sep 16 '12 at 11:14

Isaac · Answer 2 · 2012-09-16T10:16:44.913

When you use string literals with special characters inside Java code, you must also inform the Java compiler which encoding the Java file itself is encoded with.

Say you edited your Java file (containing the Japanese literal text) and saved it as a UTF-8 file. You must, then, tell the compiler to treat the source file as a UTF-8 document:

javac -encoding UTF-8 file1 file2 ...

Otherwise, the Java compiler will assume that the Java file is encoded using the operating system's default encoding, which isn't necessarily what you want it to do.

nullpotent · Answer 3 · 2012-09-16T09:47:58.607

You might wrap PrintWriter around System.out, to set charset explicitly.

final String charset = "UTF-8";
PrintWriter out = null;
try {
    out = new PrintWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(System.out, charset), true);
} catch(UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

As for the ? as the character display - It really depends on where you're outputting standard out stream. In standard Ubuntu terminal - it would probably look good (I could test it later). On Windows' cmd however, you should manually set the codepage Chcp and provide a font that comes with those characters.

Same goes for Eclipse, its console charset is UTF-8 I believe, but if you have no fonts with Japanese characters, it won't help you much.

Special Character in Java

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