Question

I have a java application that needs to display currency symbols. I’m running on a Linux(Ubuntu) server.

On Linux server LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

The following code tests the problem:

import java.util.Currency;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.text.NumberFormat;

public class SymbolTest
{
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    System.out.println("Hardcoded Unicode Currency Symbol for GBP [\u00A3] ");
    System.out.println("Currency Symbol for GBP with Locale [" + Currency.getInstance(Locale.UK).getSymbol() + "]");
    System.out.println("Currency Symbol for US with Locale [" + Currency.getInstance(Locale.US).getSymbol() + "]");
    System.out.println("Currency Symbol for FRANCE with Locale [" + Currency.getInstance(Locale.FRANCE).getSymbol() + "]");
  }
}

gives the output:

Hardcoded Unicode Currency Symbol for GBP £

Currency Symbol for GBP with Locale [£]

Currency Symbol for US with Locale [USD]

Currency Symbol for FRANCE with Locale [â¬]

I suspect this is a Locale or Lang problem on the Ubuntu server.
What should I install/configure on the linux server to enable the currency symbols to display?

Answer 1

Your program is correctly trying to output UTF-8, but your terminal apparently doesn’t know that it’s supposed to be in UTF-8 mode. So your terminal is at fault here. What terminal are you using?

Try redirecting the output of the program to a file and open that file with a UTF-8 capable editor to verify that the output is correct.