Jifty:...::utf8(3pm)

💖 Jifty::DBI::Filter::utf8 💖

okay bestie, so this is the manual page for Jifty:...::utf8(3pm), and it lives in the User Contributed Perl Documentation section of the perl man pages. yes the name is literally abbreviated like that, no I don't know why, we move on. 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

Jifty::DBI::Filter::utf8 — it's the Jifty::DBI UTF-8 data filter, and it is here to make sure your bytes are not lying to you 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So the whole vibe of this filter is: it lets you check that you're operating with valid UTF-8 data. That's it, that's the job. Your data gets a vibe check and the vibe is "are you, in fact, real UTF-8?" 🦋

Using it as a type specific filter is recommended. like, that's the intended slay. do it that way. ⭐

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🎀 METHODS 🎀

🔥 encode

The tea on encode:

• it always unsets the UTF-8 flag on the value, periodt. the flag is gone. bye.
• BUT — and this is the plot twist — if the value doesn't have that flag, then the method goes ahead and checks the value for malformed UTF-8 data, and it stops on the first bad code. like it will not sit there and scroll past nonsense, it halts the second it finds something sus 💀

no cap, "stop on the first bad code" means exactly that — it doesn't keep going to collect all the problems. one bad code and it's done.

💜 decode

decode is the opposite energy:

• it checks whether the value is correct UTF-8 data or not, and then
• it substitutes all malformed data with the 0xFFFD code point — that's the replacement character, the little � of it all. it doesn't stop, it just swaps the broken bits out 🌈
• and it always sets the UTF-8 flag on the value. always. every time. no exceptions. 👑

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

if you wanna go deeper (main character research arc), go read these:

• Jifty::DBI::Filter
• perlunicode

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and that's the whole page bestie, you ate it, you understood it, i'm obsessed 💖

this gorgeous little doc is from perl v5.34.0 and it was dated 2022-06-15 — so yes, it's serving vintage but it's still valid, and honestly? iconic. mwah. 🎀✨💅