Wide character at C:\perl-lib-ctp/Fmsc.pm line 27, <INFILE> line 1.

frank5us has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

First, some background info. I had working perl modules for Windows 10 running DWIM perl for many years. Got a new PC last week, windows 11. Dwimperl was having problems installing with cpan for spreadsheet modules, and so I decided to remove DWIMPerl and install the latest Strawberry perl instead. cpan installed my needed spreadsheet modules correctly, so some of my code was now working. But in this module, I get this error: Wide character at C:\perl-lib-ctp/Fmsc.pm line 27, <INFILE> line 1.

sub readfile_to_arr { # take in unicode utf8 text, return as array of 
+lines
    my $infilename = shift;
    my @lines =  ();
    use Encode;

    open INFILE,  "<:utf8" , $infilename || die ("can't open $infilena
+me") ;
 
(line 27)    while 
(line 28)  (my $line = decode_utf8(<INFILE>))
    {
        push(@lines, $line);
    }
[download]

What's the error message complaining about? A wide character in my source code (which used to work fine on Windows 10 with DWIMperl), or is it complaining about contents of the actual <INFILE> being read in?

Comment on Wide character at C:\perl-lib-ctp/Fmsc.pm line 27, <INFILE> line 1. Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Wide character at C:\perl-lib-ctp/Fmsc.pm line 27, <INFILE> line 1. by Corion (Patriarch) on Dec 26, 2021 at 08:27 UTC
These two lines in combination make little sense: `open INFILE, "<:utf8" , $infilename \|\| die ("can't open $infilena +me") ; while (my $line = decode_utf8(<INFILE>)) { }` [download] The first line already tells Perl to decode the lines in `INFILE` as UTF-8 bytes. The second line tries to decode again. I would lose the second line and rewrite it as: `open INFILE, "<:utf8" , $infilename \|\| die ("can't open $infilena +me") ; @lines = <INFILE>;` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Wide character at C:\perl-lib-ctp/Fmsc.pm line 27, <INFILE> line 1. by Fletch (Bishop) on Dec 26, 2021 at 14:30 UTC
Precedence problem there too; you need `or` instead of `\|\|`, or you need to parenthesize `open`'s arguments. As is that's checking if `$infilename` is true (calling die if not), and then calling open and ignoring the return from it. `open( FH, MODE, FILE ) \|\| die ERROR; open FH, MODE, FILE or die ERROR;` [download] The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Wide character at C:\perl-lib-ctp/Fmsc.pm line 27, <INFILE> line 1. by Anonymous Monk on Dec 26, 2021 at 16:53 UTC
Slight correction: the `"<:utf8"` asserts that the input file is UTF-8, and it is decoded as such. The preferred mode for this case these days is `"<:encoding(utf-8)"`, which actually checks the encoding, failing if an invalid encoding is encountered. Yes, `"<:utf8"` appeared in older Perl documentation, which shows that better people than me failed to appreciate the distinction in the early going. It is mostly gone now.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Wide character at C:\perl-lib-ctp/Fmsc.pm line 27, <INFILE> line 1. by frank5us (Initiate) on Dec 26, 2021 at 23:04 UTC
Thanks, I've incorporated that. When I write the utf-8 as a file, do I also need to wrap it with that check? `###################################################################### +################## sub write_file_utf8 { my $outfilename= shift; # appears in browser tabs my $outstr = shift; # file as a string ################################################################## +############## open OUTFILE, ">:utf8" , $outfilename or die "cannot open >:utf8 $outfilename: $!"; #binmode STDOUT, ":utf8"; print OUTFILE $outstr, "\n"; close(OUTFILE); } #sub` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Wide character at C:\perl-lib-ctp/Fmsc.pm line 27, <INFILE> line 1. by frank5us (Initiate) on Dec 26, 2021 at 22:55 UTC
thanks! that made the 'wide char' error go away and it works now. I guess DWIMPerl didn't care about that error.	[reply]


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