Search code examples
powershellutf-8character-encoding

UTF8 Script in PowerShell outputs incorrect characters

I've created a UTF8 script for PowerShell with non-ascii characters.

characters.ps1:

Write-Host "ç â ã á à"

When the script is run in PowerShell console, it outputs wrong characters.

enter image description here

However, if I write the chars directly in the console, they are shown as expected:

enter image description here

Does anyone knows what causes that behavior?

The problem arised from a script I wrote who has hardcoded paths which include non-ascii characters. When I try to pass the path as argument to cmdlets (in the case I was gonna robocopy a folder) the command fails because it cannot find the path (which is output wrongly in the screen).

Solution

  • Changing the encoding of the script to UTF-8 with BOM solved the issue.

    I was using SublimeText with the EncodingHelper plugin to control the character-set of the script. It was set correctly to UTF8.

    I changed the encoding of the script in SublimeText to "UTF-8 with BOM" and the output was shown correctly.

    I created the same script with Notepad++, which defaults to "UTF-8 with BOM", and the string was shown correctly in the console.

    I changed the encoding of the script in Notepad++ to "UTF-8 without BOM" and it was shown incorrectly.

    It seems PowerShell cannot guess correctly the encoding of UTF-8 files with no BOM.