Compilation error "error: stray ‘\302’" in program error while connecting MySQL from C++

Question

I took sqlconnect from a C++ sample example from here: SQL connect from C++. I want to insert data into MySQL table from C++. I am just trying to run first sample example to get rid of it. Please suggest what should I take care of?

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <iostream>

/*
  Include the different
  headers from cppconn/ and mysql_driver.h + mysql_util.h
  (and mysql_connection.h). This will reduce your build time!
*/
#include "mysql_connection.h"

#include <cppconn/driver.h>
#include <cppconn/exception.h>
#include <cppconn/resultset.h>
#include <cppconn/statement.h>
#include <cppconn/prepared_statement.h>

using namespace std;

int main(void)
{
    cout << endl;
    cout << "Let's have MySQL count from 10 to 1..." << endl;

    try {
        sql::Driver *driver;
        sql::Connection *con;
        sql::Statement *stmt;
        sql::ResultSet *res;
        sql::PreparedStatement *pstmt;

        /* Create a connection */
        driver = get_driver_instance();
        con = driver->connect("tcp://127.0.0.1:3306", "root", "root");
        /* Connect to the MySQL test database */
        con->setSchema("test");

        stmt = con->createStatement();
        stmt->execute("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS test");
        stmt->execute("CREATE TABLE test(id INT)");
        delete stmt;

        /* '?' is the supported placeholder syntax */
        pstmt = con->prepareStatement("INSERT INTO test(id) VALUES (?)");
        for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
            pstmt->setInt(1, i);
            pstmt->executeUpdate();
        }
        delete pstmt;

        /* Select in ascending order */
        pstmt = con->prepareStatement("SELECT id FROM test ORDER BY id ASC");
        res = pstmt->executeQuery();

        /* Fetch in reverse = descending order! */
        res->afterLast();
        while (res->previous())
          cout << "\t... MySQL counts: " << res->getInt("id") << endl;
        delete res;

        delete pstmt;
        delete con;

    } catch (sql::SQLException &e) {
        cout << "# ERR: SQLException in " << __FILE__;
        cout << "(" << __FUNCTION__ << ") on line " »
             << __LINE__ << endl;
        cout << "# ERR: " << e.what();
        cout << " (MySQL error code: " << e.getErrorCode();
        cout << ", SQLState: " << e.getSQLState() << »
                " )" << endl;
    }

    cout << endl;

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Everything is fine. Why does it give the following compilation errors?

temp.cpp:65:3: error: stray ‘\302’ in program
temp.cpp:65:3: error: stray ‘\273’ in program

temp.cpp:69:3: error: stray ‘\302’ in program
temp.cpp:69:3: error: stray ‘\273’ in program

I saw a similar question on Stack Overflow, but still it does not get solved!

Answer 1

Somewhere on line 65 and 69 you have some odd characters. They might be invisible characters, so in the general case when you encounter this error, just delete the entire line, and type it again.

In this case you have some odd characters here:

cout << "(" << __FUNCTION__ << ") on line " »
                                            ^^
                                     What's this?

You should probably delete that, and same a few lines further down.

Answer 2

Which 'similar thread'? There was one recently, and the problem was described to be caused by copy-pasting code from a website that translated straight quotes and dashes into curly quotes and en-dashes. These, in turn, were transliterated using UTF-8, and indeed:

302 (octal) is "Â" -- 0xC2 273 is "»" -- 0xBB

This yields a full valid UTF8 code "0xC2BB", which happens to be the character "»" again. Now look at line 65 in your code -- there it is, just as the error message said.