Why isn't Java properly displaying unicode in the String?

Question

I am using IntelliJ IDEA and I was trying to print a string that has unicode for a skier U+26F7 and for a runner U+1F3C3 with the following code:

System.out.println("\u26f7" + "   " + "\u1f3c3");

Only the skier displays properly. However, IntelliJ does show the last 3 of the runner code with different color, indicating that there was a problem. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Your second character has 5 digits, which is not possible in java, but there is a workaround here:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19557026/how-to-display-5-digit-unicode-characters-such-as-a-speaker-u1f50a-in-android So in your case \uD83C\uDFC3 should do the job — pdem, Sep 07 '18 at 14:55

JGNI · Answer 1 · 2018-09-26T07:52:20.550

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Java uses utf16 so the character \u1f3c3 is out of its range. You can pass in the character using it's surroget pair

System.out.println("\u26f7" + "   " + "\ud83c\udfc3")

edited Sep 26 '18 at 07:52

answered Sep 07 '18 at 15:01

JGNI

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the question is about Java and not Javascript – phuclv Sep 07 '18 at 15:49
It still doesn't show them: a small rectangle is being shown for both of them instead. – cellpowerhouse Sep 07 '18 at 15:51
@cellpowerhouse In that case, your console character set doesn't support that specific character. – Mark Rotteveel Sep 07 '18 at 15:53

VGR · Answer 2 · 2018-09-08T19:48:36.850

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Java’s escape syntax was designed back when Unicode was expected to have no more than 2¹⁶ characters, so you must specify exactly four hex digits ater the \u. No more, no less.

"\u1f3c3" is actually the two characters \u1f3c and 3.

Java Strings are always in UTF-16. So one option is to look up detailed information for your character (for instance, here) and use the corresponding UTF-16 values in your string: 0xD83C 0xDFC3 → "\uD83C\uDFC3"

Another option is using the %c specifier in java.util.Formatter. For example:

System.out.printf("%c   %c%n", 0x26f7, 0x1f3c3);

(Unlike println, printf does not print a newline unless you add %n to the format.)

edited Sep 08 '18 at 19:48

answered Sep 07 '18 at 16:41

VGR

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It also doesn't work. Must be something with my system then (I'm using Linux). – cellpowerhouse Sep 07 '18 at 16:58
Have you verified that the U+1F3C3 character is visible in any font? That fileformat.info page should show the character in the first two lines of the **Java Data** table. Or, you can try running gedit and typing Ctrl-Shift-U 1f3c3 in the editor. – VGR Sep 07 '18 at 17:14
it only shows the skier, same as in intellij idea. I also tried to paste in vim and I got the same result. My system just won't display unicode outside 0xffff :| – cellpowerhouse Sep 07 '18 at 20:24

Why isn't Java properly displaying unicode in the String?

2 Answers2