# Irb differs from script

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-differs-from-script/140155>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [June 11, 2008, 12:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-differs-from-script/140155 "2008-06-11T12:34:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![martijndenerd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@martijndenerd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/martijndenerd)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 12:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-differs-from-script/140155/1 "2008-06-11T12:34:31Z")

</div>

hi,

i’m trying to remove special characters from a string using iconv and it  
works nicely in irb. When i run the same code in a script… it doesn’t  
work though ☹

Any clues what could be the difference?

irb:  
irb(main):001:0\> require ‘iconv’  
=\> true  
irb(main):002:0\> s = “genève”  
=\> “gen\303\250ve”  
irb(main):003:0\> puts s.gsub(/./) {|s| s[0].to\_s + ’ '}  
103 101 110 195 168 118 101  
=\> nil  
irb(main):004:0\> s = “genève”  
=\> “gen\303\250ve”  
irb(main):005:0\> b = Iconv.conv(‘ascii//translit’,‘UTF-8’, s)  
=\> “geneve”  
irb(main):006:0\> puts b  
geneve  
=\> nil

script:  
require ‘iconv’

s = “genève”  
puts s.gsub(/./) {|s| s[0].to\_s + ’ '}  
s = “genève”  
b = Iconv.conv(‘ascii//translit’,‘UTF-8’, s)  
puts b

output:  
103 101 110 195 168 118 101  
gen?ve

any clues anyone ?

tnx,

Martijn