bytes(3)

NAME
bytes - Perl pragma to force byte semantics rather than character semantics

SYNOPSIS
    use bytes;
    no bytes;

DESCRIPTION
WARNING: The implementation of Unicode support in Perl is incomplete. See the perlunicode manpage for the exact details.

The "use bytes" pragma disables character semantics for the rest of the lexical scope in which it appears. "no bytes" can be used to reverse the effect of "use bytes" within the current lexical scope.

Perl normally assumes character semantics in the presence of character data (i.e. data that has come from a source that has been marked as being of a particular character encoding). When "use bytes" is in effect, the encoding is temporarily ignored, and each string is treated as a series of bytes.

As an example, when Perl sees "$x = chr(400)", it encodes the character in UTF8 and stores it in $x. Then it is marked as character data, so, for instance, "length $x" returns "1". However, in the scope of the "bytes" pragma, $x is treated as a series of bytes - the bytes that make up the UTF8 encoding - and "length $x" returns "2":

    $x = chr(400);
    print "Length is ", length $x, "\n";     # "Length is 1"
    printf "Contents are %vd\n", $x;         # "Contents are 400"
    {
        use bytes;
        print "Length is ", length $x, "\n"; # "Length is 2"
        printf "Contents are %vd\n", $x;     # "Contents are 198.144"
    }
For more on the implications and differences between character semantics and byte semantics, see the perlunicode manpage.

SEE ALSO
the perlunicode manpage, the utf8 manpage