Show the relevant portion of your Perl code, in a small self-contained program that includes sample input and the incorrect behavior you are describing. This must be possible to reduce to 30 lines of code or less, if it is a problem with your Perl code. Part of the reason we need to see code is to see how you are handling UTF-8. Another part of the reason is to see how the question relates to Perl at all. As asked, the question seems too vague to be answerable.