error: illegal character: '\ufeff' in java

Question

Got this error when compiled java code in ubuntu.

![Got this error][1]

error: illegal character: '\ufeff'

import java.net.*;
^

error: class, interface, or enum expected

import java.net.*;
        ^

Looks like a UTF-8 BOM (Byte Order Marker) at the start of the file. That should not be there, just remove it. — Jim Garrison, Aug 15 '17 at 17:02
How did you create the file? Use an editor that does not add the BOM, or configure your editor to not add the BOM when editing UTF-8 — Jim Garrison, Aug 15 '17 at 17:05

Sunny Patel · Answer 1 · 2017-08-15T17:31:43.120

19

As Jim Garrison pointed out, you probably have a Byte Order Marker (BOM) at the start of the file. Use an editor that can view all non-printable characters and remove it.

Alternatively, you can use sed to remove it:

sed '1s/^.//' infile >> outfile

edited Aug 15 '17 at 17:31

answered Aug 15 '17 at 17:23

Sunny Patel

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Or in vim `:set nobomb` `:wq` – lucidbrot Apr 05 '19 at 08:19
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`:x ` is shorter than `:wq`. :) – Sunny Patel Apr 08 '19 at 16:31
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if you use intellij right click on file and choose "Remove BOM" – Samir Ghoneim Jun 17 '20 at 22:07

score 14 · Answer 2 · answered May 04 '21 at 08:18

14

If you are using IntelliJ, right click on the class file and select 'Remove BOM'. That should remove the BOM at the start.

answered May 04 '21 at 08:18

Sajin Pattath

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It's strange but sometimes it doesn't work at first so I have first to add BOM and then remove BOM – RoK Feb 03 '22 at 14:35
Had the same issue with `netlify.toml` causing a config parsing error on Netlify. This worked, thanks. – Victor Zakharov Apr 18 '22 at 11:57

score 11 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 14 '20 at 09:20

11

In case your are working on Windows O.S. and use Eclipse (which don't have the functionality to remove the BOM from the file), just open the file in Notepad++ and in the encoding menu, select "UTF-8", then save the file.

edited Aug 14 '20 at 09:20

sɐunıɔןɐqɐp

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answered Aug 14 '20 at 08:34

Jeff

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It is quite possible in eclipse: Just change the encoding of the file to iso (Right click on file - > Properties) and delete the first three BOM characters, save file and reopen it. – Lonzak Jun 06 '21 at 20:45

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 05 '19 at 14:32

Use another editor because it seems to be an eclipse UTF-8-BOM problem. Convert the UTF type UTF-8.

And also I note that ; First it doesn't work for me and I convert the type ANSI and after convert type to UTF-8 format. It can be a another alternative solution for you

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 21 '21 at 11:58

0

downloading models from https://codebeautify.org/json-to-java-converter is causing such problems.

create new file and copy/paste all data from the downloaded file.

answered Apr 21 '21 at 11:58

jeet.chanchawat

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 15 '23 at 05:47

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IF you get java: illegal character: '\ufeff' error in java you must remove BOM on the right bottom of IDE Look bottom and right, click UTF-8 and remove BOM click for image

answered Jun 15 '23 at 05:47

Huseyn Hemidov

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error: illegal character: '\ufeff' in java

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