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java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Malformed \uxxxx encoding

I was getting this exception during build while running ant. Googling didn't help much and I was flummoxed because the same code was running fine till now.

My code reads a text file and does some operations on the basis of values read. It was only when I saw the text files I understood the error. I had copied the text in wordpad and saved it as .txt file. Wordpad had put lot of formatting information before and after the content. Also there was "\par" after every line, which was giving this error.

So moral of the story: if you get this exception check your properties file (or any other file that your code might be reading.)
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Comments

Jesus M Movilla said…
I have the same problem but apparently the text file is fine, how can I check if there are some undesirable characters in it?

Thanks a lot!
6:36 AM
Waterfox said…
Try to open the file in vim editor or any other UTF-8 enabled text editor.
7:49 AM
Jesus M Movilla said…
Solved!
It was a "\u" in a property value...

Thanks!
7:51 AM
GIRISH said…
Hi,
i'm Getting the same while loading the file...
here is the code:
FileInputStream MyInputStream = new FileInputStream(new File("Defaultprop.pref"));
myProps.load(MyInputStream);

please Help Me Out With This..

Thanks a Lot
3:20 AM
GIRISH said…
Hi,
Even I'm gettin same error while loadin the file... here is the code:
FileInputStream MyInputStream = new FileInputStream(new File("Defaultprop.pref"));

myProps.load( new FileInputStream("Defaultprop.pref"));

Please Help out to get rid of this ;0
3:27 AM
Waterfox said…
The same advice that I gave to previous question. Please check your .pref file in vim or any other UTF-8 enabled text editor to see if there is any unwanted characters in the file.
10:17 PM
Luke said…
Thanks for posting this. Saved me a ton of time. Had this problem intermittently in a build file. The build.properties file would have been one of the last places I'd have thought to look. Ended up being an unescaped "\" in my build.properties file.
8:03 AM
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