How do I handle an "incomplete multibyte character" error from Postgres using Ruby?

Question

I'm writing a Ruby program to fetch some code from the net and sometimes it had this error:

Error incomplete multibyte character.

I'm trying to escape() the string using pg.

How can I handle this error? How can I convert the string to a valid UTF8 string?

Why don't you help us out by showing some sample code? – the Tin Man Jan 17 '11 at 20:54 — the Tin Man, Jan 17 '11 at 20:54
What does this have to do with PostgreSQL? – Mike Sherrill 'Cat Recall' Mar 05 '11 at 12:00 — Mike Sherrill 'Cat Recall', Mar 05 '11 at 12:00

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 05 '11 at 11:56

1

To convert between encodings, try ruby's Iconv class. It's in the standard library.

answered Mar 05 '11 at 11:56

Mike Sherrill 'Cat Recall'

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Note that iconv was deprecated in Ruby 1.9; see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8148762/iconv-deprecation-warning-with-ruby-1-9-3 – Ben Feb 18 '13 at 15:57

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 27 '13 at 12:30

I'm coming in this discussion as I had the same issue. Some tried something strange with my application and I received the following exception email report:

PG::Error occurred in slides#show:

incomplete multibyte character

activerecord (3.2.11) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:472:in `escape_string'

Request:

URL : http://www.roxcom.lu/slides/Vintage%20Gigolos++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Result:+%ed%e5+%ed%e0%f8%eb%ee%f1%fc+%f4%ee%f0%ec%fb+%e4%eb%ff+%ee%f2%ef%f0%e0%e2%ea%e8;

IP address: 91.200.14.57

Parameters: {"controller"=>"slides", "action"=>"show", "title"=>"Vintage Gigolos++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Result:+\xED\xE5+\xED\xE0\xF8\xEB\xEE\xF1\xFC+\xF4\xEE\xF0\xEC\xFB+\xE4\xEB\xFF+\xEE\xF2\xEF\xF0\xE0\xE2\xEA\xE8;"}

Rails root: /var/www/apps/roxcom.lu/releases/20130116132800

Session:

session id: nil

data: {}

So how to handle this case ?

Sorry... I wrote it as Answer but wasn't an answer... shame on me. :( — ZedTuX, Jun 27 '13 at 12:31

How do I handle an "incomplete multibyte character" error from Postgres using Ruby?

2 Answers2

Request:

Session: