“Incorrect string value” when trying to insert UTF

Question

This is how my connection is set:
Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection(url + dbName + "?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=utf-8", userName, password);

And I'm getting the following error when tyring to add a row to a table:
Incorrect string value: '\xF0\x90\x8D\x83\xF0\x90...' for column 'content' at row 1

I'm inserting thousands of records, and I always get this error when the text contains \xF0 (i.e. the the incorrect string value always starts with \xF0).

The column's collation is utf8_general_ci.

What could be the problem?

Answer 1

I had this problem with my PLAY Java application. This is my stack trace for that exception:

javax.persistence.PersistenceException: Error[Incorrect string value: '\xE0\xA6\xAC\xE0\xA6\xBE...' for column 'product_name' at row 1]
  at io.ebean.config.dbplatform.SqlCodeTranslator.translate(SqlCodeTranslator.java:52)
  at io.ebean.config.dbplatform.DatabasePlatform.translate(DatabasePlatform.java:192)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.persist.dml.DmlBeanPersister.execute(DmlBeanPersister.java:83)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.persist.dml.DmlBeanPersister.insert(DmlBeanPersister.java:49)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.core.PersistRequestBean.executeInsert(PersistRequestBean.java:1136)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.core.PersistRequestBean.executeNow(PersistRequestBean.java:723)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.core.PersistRequestBean.executeNoBatch(PersistRequestBean.java:778)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.core.PersistRequestBean.executeOrQueue(PersistRequestBean.java:769)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.persist.DefaultPersister.insert(DefaultPersister.java:456)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.persist.DefaultPersister.insert(DefaultPersister.java:406)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.persist.DefaultPersister.save(DefaultPersister.java:393)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.core.DefaultServer.save(DefaultServer.java:1602)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.core.DefaultServer.save(DefaultServer.java:1594)
  at io.ebean.Model.save(Model.java:190)
  at models.Product.create(Product.java:147)
  at controllers.PushData.xlsupload(PushData.java:67)
  at router.Routes$$anonfun$routes$1.$anonfun$applyOrElse$40(Routes.scala:690)
  at play.core.routing.HandlerInvokerFactory$$anon$3.resultCall(HandlerInvoker.scala:134)
  at play.core.routing.HandlerInvokerFactory$$anon$3.resultCall(HandlerInvoker.scala:133)
  at play.core.routing.HandlerInvokerFactory$JavaActionInvokerFactory$$anon$8$$anon$2$$anon$1.invocation(HandlerInvoker.scala:108)
  at play.core.j.JavaAction$$anon$1.call(JavaAction.scala:88)
  at play.http.DefaultActionCreator$1.call(DefaultActionCreator.java:31)
  at play.core.j.JavaAction.$anonfun$apply$8(JavaAction.scala:138)
  at scala.concurrent.Future$.$anonfun$apply$1(Future.scala:655)
  at scala.util.Success.$anonfun$map$1(Try.scala:251)
  at scala.util.Success.map(Try.scala:209)
  at scala.concurrent.Future.$anonfun$map$1(Future.scala:289)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise.liftedTree1$1(Promise.scala:29)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise.$anonfun$transform$1(Promise.scala:29)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.CallbackRunnable.run$$$capture(Promise.scala:60)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.CallbackRunnable.run(Promise.scala)
  at play.core.j.HttpExecutionContext$$anon$2.run(HttpExecutionContext.scala:56)
  at play.api.libs.streams.Execution$trampoline$.execute(Execution.scala:70)
  at play.core.j.HttpExecutionContext.execute(HttpExecutionContext.scala:48)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.CallbackRunnable.executeWithValue(Promise.scala:68)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise$KeptPromise$Kept.onComplete(Promise.scala:368)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise$KeptPromise$Kept.onComplete$(Promise.scala:367)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise$KeptPromise$Successful.onComplete(Promise.scala:375)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise.transform(Promise.scala:29)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise.transform$(Promise.scala:27)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise$KeptPromise$Successful.transform(Promise.scala:375)
  at scala.concurrent.Future.map(Future.scala:289)
  at scala.concurrent.Future.map$(Future.scala:289)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise$KeptPromise$Successful.map(Promise.scala:375)
  at scala.concurrent.Future$.apply(Future.scala:655)
  at play.core.j.JavaAction.apply(JavaAction.scala:138)
  at play.api.mvc.Action.$anonfun$apply$2(Action.scala:96)
  at scala.concurrent.Future.$anonfun$flatMap$1(Future.scala:304)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise.$anonfun$transformWith$1(Promise.scala:37)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.CallbackRunnable.run$$$capture(Promise.scala:60)
  at scala.concurrent.impl.CallbackRunnable.run(Promise.scala)
  at akka.dispatch.BatchingExecutor$AbstractBatch.processBatch(BatchingExecutor.scala:55)
  at akka.dispatch.BatchingExecutor$BlockableBatch.$anonfun$run$1(BatchingExecutor.scala:91)
  at scala.runtime.java8.JFunction0$mcV$sp.apply(JFunction0$mcV$sp.java:12)
  at scala.concurrent.BlockContext$.withBlockContext(BlockContext.scala:81)
  at akka.dispatch.BatchingExecutor$BlockableBatch.run(BatchingExecutor.scala:91)
  at akka.dispatch.TaskInvocation.run(AbstractDispatcher.scala:40)
  at akka.dispatch.ForkJoinExecutorConfigurator$AkkaForkJoinTask.exec(ForkJoinExecutorConfigurator.scala:43)
  at akka.dispatch.forkjoin.ForkJoinTask.doExec(ForkJoinTask.java:260)
  at akka.dispatch.forkjoin.ForkJoinPool$WorkQueue.runTask(ForkJoinPool.java:1339)
  at akka.dispatch.forkjoin.ForkJoinPool.runWorker(ForkJoinPool.java:1979)
  at akka.dispatch.forkjoin.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run(ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:107)
Caused by: java.sql.SQLException: Incorrect string value: '\xE0\xA6\xAC\xE0\xA6\xBE...' for column 'product_name' at row 1
  at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:1074)
  at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.checkErrorPacket(MysqlIO.java:4096)
  at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.checkErrorPacket(MysqlIO.java:4028)
  at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.sendCommand(MysqlIO.java:2490)
  at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.sqlQueryDirect(MysqlIO.java:2651)
  at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.execSQL(ConnectionImpl.java:2734)
  at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.executeInternal(PreparedStatement.java:2155)
  at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.executeUpdate(PreparedStatement.java:2458)
  at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.executeUpdate(PreparedStatement.java:2375)
  at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.executeUpdate(PreparedStatement.java:2359)
  at com.zaxxer.hikari.pool.ProxyPreparedStatement.executeUpdate(ProxyPreparedStatement.java:61)
  at com.zaxxer.hikari.pool.HikariProxyPreparedStatement.executeUpdate(HikariProxyPreparedStatement.java)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.type.DataBind.executeUpdate(DataBind.java:82)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.persist.dml.InsertHandler.execute(InsertHandler.java:122)
  at io.ebeaninternal.server.persist.dml.DmlBeanPersister.execute(DmlBeanPersister.java:73)
  ... 59 more

I was trying to save a record using io.Ebean. I fixed it by re creating my database with utf8mb4 collation, and applied play evolution to re create all tables so that all tables should be recreated with utf-8 collation.

CREATE DATABASE inventory CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

Answer 2

Its mostly caused due to some unicode characters. In my case it was the Rupee currency symbol.

To quickly fix this, I had to spot the character causing this error. I copy pasted the entire text in a text editor like vi and replaced the troubling character with a text one.

Answer 3

I had the same problem in my rails project:

Incorrect string value: '\xF0\xA9\xB8\xBDs ...' for column 'subject' at row1

Solution 1: before saving to db convert string to base64 by Base64.encode64(subject) and after fetching from db use Base64.decode64(subject)

Solution 2:

Step 1: Change the character set (and collation) for subject column by

ALTER TABLE t1 MODIFY
subject VARCHAR(255)
  CHARACTER SET utf8mb4
  COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

Step 2: In database.yml use

encoding :utf8mb4

Answer 4

Assuming you are using phpmyadmin to solve this error, follow these steps:

1. phpMyAdmin
2. your_table
3. "Structure tab"
4. change the Collation of your field from latin1_swedish_ci (or whatever it is) to utf8_general_ci

Answer 5

my solution is change the column type from varchar(255) to blob

Answer 6

I wanted to combine a couple of posts to make a full answer of this since it does appear to be a few steps.

1. Above advice by @madtracey

/etc/mysql/my.cnf or /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf

[mysql]
default-character-set=utf8mb4

[mysqld_safe]
socket          = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
nice            = 0

[mysqld]
##
character-set-server=utf8mb4
collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
init_connect='SET NAMES utf8mb4'
sql_mode=STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,NO_ZERO_IN_DATE,NO_ZERO_DATE,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Again from advice above all jdbc connections had characterEncoding=UTF-8and characterSetResults=UTF-8 removed from them

With this set -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 appeared to make no difference.

I could still not write international text into db getting same failure as above

Now using this how-to-convert-an-entire-mysql-database-characterset-and-collation-to-utf-8

Update all your db to use utf8mb4

ALTER DATABASE YOURDB CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

Run this query that gives you what needs to be rung

SELECT CONCAT(
'ALTER TABLE ',  table_name, ' CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;  ', 
'ALTER TABLE ',  table_name, ' CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;  ')
FROM information_schema.TABLES AS T, information_schema.`COLLATION_CHARACTER_SET_APPLICABILITY` AS C
WHERE C.collation_name = T.table_collation
AND T.table_schema = 'YOURDB'
AND
(C.CHARACTER_SET_NAME != 'utf8mb4'
    OR
 C.COLLATION_NAME not like 'utf8mb4%')

Copy paste output in editor replace all | with nothing post back into mysql when connected to correct db.

That is all that had to be done and all seems to work for me. Not the -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 is not enabled and it appears to work as expected

E2A Still having an issue ? I certainly am in production so it turns out you do need to check over what has been done by above, since it sometimes does not work, here is reason and fix in this scenario:

show create table user

  `password` varchar(255) CHARACTER SET latin1 NOT NULL,
  `username` varchar(255) CHARACTER SET latin1 NOT NULL,

You can see some are still latin attempting to manually update the record:

ALTER TABLE user CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4;
ERROR 1071 (42000): Specified key was too long; max key length is 767 bytes

So let's narrow it down:

mysql> ALTER TABLE user change username username varchar(255) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 not NULL;
ERROR 1071 (42000): Specified key was too long; max key length is 767 bytes
mysql> ALTER TABLE user change username username varchar(100) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 not NULL;
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.01 sec)

In short I had to reduce the size of that field in order to get the update to work.

Now when I run:

mysql> ALTER TABLE user CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4;
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.01 sec)
Records: 5  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

It all works