Jackson ObjectMapper is turning euro symbol into junk character

Question

I have a object which has a field called currencySymbol which stores Euro symbol in one of its property of String type. When I convert this Object to json using Object mapper euro symbol is converted into a junk character. Below is the code I am using. Do I need to do any character encoding configuration before converting to JSON

public String convertObjectToJson(Object obj) {
    long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
    objectMapper.configure(SerializationFeature.FAIL_ON_EMPTY_BEANS, false);
    String jsonBody = null;
    try {
        jsonBody = objectMapper.writeValueAsString(obj);
    } catch (JsonProcessingException e) {
        logger.info(e.getMessage(), e.fillInStackTrace());
    }
    logger.debug("Conversion time for object to json :: " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - start) / 1000d);
    return jsonBody;
}

Input object :

{"currencySymbol":"₹","currencyFormat":"₹0;-₹0"}

JSON output:

{"currencySymbol":"Ç","currencyFormat":"Ç0;-Ç0"}

As you can see post conversion 'Indian Rupee' symbol ₹ is turned to junk character. Same thing happens for Euro € symbol as well

You most likely don't want to call `ObjectMapper.configure()` each time you encode to json, that's a setup task that should be done once. — Karol Dowbecki, Jan 30 '20 at 17:41
Please add the example object with values and the "junk" character output — Karol Dowbecki, Jan 30 '20 at 17:41
Input object : {"currencySymbol":"₹","currencyFormat":"₹0;-₹0"} JSON output { "currencySymbol":"Ç","currencyFormat":"Ç0;-Ç0"} As you can see post conversion 'Indian Rupee' symbol ₹ is turned to junk character. Same thing happens for Euro € symbol as well — Dattatreya Kugve, Jan 31 '20 at 00:59
Please edit your question and add details rather than mentioning in the comment — Smile, Jan 31 '20 at 04:07
I used your code and printed the output on console, it works fine. Where do you see the symbol getting converted to junk - on console or some UI? — Smile, Jan 31 '20 at 04:14
Edited my question to include output as you suggested. junk values are seen in console and also in my html page which uses this JSON response. — Dattatreya Kugve, Jan 31 '20 at 05:00

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 04 '20 at 12:21

I am able to resolve this issue by setting config parameter JsonGenerator.Feature.ESCAPE_NON_ASCII to true. Below is the working code

public String convertObjectToJson(Object obj) {
    long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
    objectMapper.configure(SerializationFeature.FAIL_ON_EMPTY_BEANS, false);
    objectMapper.getFactory().configure(JsonGenerator.Feature.ESCAPE_NON_ASCII, true);
    String jsonBody = null;
    try {
        jsonBody = objectMapper.writeValueAsString(obj);
    } catch (JsonProcessingException e) {
        logger.info(e.getMessage(), e.fillInStackTrace());
    }
    logger.debug("Conversion time for object to json :: " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - start) / 1000d);
    return jsonBody;
}

Ricky Sixx · Answer 2 · 2020-02-13T09:59:25.690

I'll post an answer because it may be useful to someone else.

I had a similar problem, but it turned out to not be Jackson's fault.

I was trying to serialize a string which contained the € character to a JSON string using Jackson library (version 2.8.6).

I've tried to debug my code to see the value of the serialized JSON string and it contained the € character, but in the console and in the log files I've always seen a junk character.

So it turned out to be a problem on the encoding used by my console and by my logging framework.

Just for reference, here is an answer on how to explicitly set the encoding used by a Logback appender. After setting this encoding, I was able to see the € symbol in my log files.

Jackson ObjectMapper is turning euro symbol into junk character

2 Answers2