# Support for Unicode strings **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [January 11, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-unicode-strings/60962 "2006-01-11T14:04:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rhaus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@rhaus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rhaus)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-unicode-strings/60962/1 "2006-01-11T14:04:53Z")
I am rather new to ruby but was considering to use it for my next project. However, support for Unicode strings would be essential. This includes the correct handling of unicode strings in regular expressions, in IO operations etc. How is this best done in Ruby? ---
**Author:** ![rhaus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@rhaus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rhaus)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-unicode-strings/60962/2 "2006-01-11T16:06:45Z")
On 11/01/06, RHaus [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I am rather new to ruby but was considering to use it for my next > project. However, support for Unicode strings would be essential. This > includes the correct handling of unicode strings in regular expressions, > in IO operations etc. How is this best done in Ruby? Please do a search on this. The answers to these questions have been given a dozen times. A quick summary: 1. Ruby Strings are byte vectors. Eith $KCODE = ‘u’, you get some additional capabilities with Regexen for Unicode (UTF-8). 2. As long as you’re not actually looking for foo[0] to give you the first character (Unicode or otherwise), you’ll be okay. Ruby does just fine with most applications of Unicode. Ruby 2.0 will include m17n Strings that will make it even better, not just for Unicode. -austin