newbie question on UTFDataFormatException

I recieve a UTFDataFormatException while parsing a huge xml file. What
is the meaning of this Exception and what are the possible causes ?
Could this be a problem with the application or is it purely a data
problem ?
I am using the xerces-c SAX parser.
Thanks for you help.

Sriv Chakravarthy

thanks for your response.
What is the difference between UTF-8 and LATIN1 ? If my xml document
contains all ascii chars then should the encoding be LATIN1 ?
And how will I set the encoding - as a parameter to the handler object
or in the first line of the xml file itself ( in <?xml ...> line )




(Richard Tobin) wrote in message news:<bda09m$2gm5$>...
> In article <>,
> Sriv Chakravarthy <> wrote:
>
> >I recieve a UTFDataFormatException while parsing a huge xml file. What
> >is the meaning of this Exception and what are the possible causes ?
>
> It means that it is reading the file as UTF-8 and there is a sequence
> of bytes in the file that is not legal UTF-8. Possibly your file is
> corrupted, but more likely it's actually in some other encoding such
> as Latin-1, and just needs a declaration specifying this (UTF-8 is
> the default).
>
> -- Richard

"Sriv Chakravarthy" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> thanks for your response.
> What is the difference between UTF-8 and LATIN1 ? If my xml document
> contains all ascii chars then should the encoding be LATIN1 ?
> And how will I set the encoding - as a parameter to the handler object
> or in the first line of the xml file itself ( in <?xml ...> line )

If it's all ascii, the encoding can be ASCII. UTF-8 or LATIN1 are ok, too.
The best choice depends on what application is going to read the documents.
Every parser is required to support UTF-8; most support the others, too.

Bob Foster
http://www.xmlbuddy.com/

In xerces-c sax parser, how do you set the encoding ? is it set as the
first line <?xml...> in the xml document or is it set via a member
function ?


"Bob Foster" <> wrote in message news:<FMyMa.17056$926.572@sccrnsc03>...
> "Sriv Chakravarthy" <> wrote in message
> news: om...
> > thanks for your response.
> > What is the difference between UTF-8 and LATIN1 ? If my xml document
> > contains all ascii chars then should the encoding be LATIN1 ?
> > And how will I set the encoding - as a parameter to the handler object
> > or in the first line of the xml file itself ( in <?xml ...> line )
>
> If it's all ascii, the encoding can be ASCII. UTF-8 or LATIN1 are ok, too.
> The best choice depends on what application is going to read the documents.
> Every parser is required to support UTF-8; most support the others, too.
>
> Bob Foster
> http://www.xmlbuddy.com/