Latin Cross

[amitfriedman12]

For some reason when i try to encode the latin cross emoji the output includes a utf8 character which causes some DB issues since it is not a valid string.

ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid: Mysql2::Error: Incorrect string value: '\xEF\xB8\x8F...'

Looking up \xEF\xB8\x8F at the utf8 chartable it looks like this is an empty space character.

I am not asking how to fix the DB issue, i am asking however if you know why is it that the latin cross emoji contains that nasty utf8 character, and isn't there a better way to handle the encoding?

Normal emoji:

$ heart = "💟"
=> "💟"
$ heart.length
=> 1
$ encoded_heart = Rumoji.encode heart
=> ":heart_decoration:"

Latin Cross Emoji

$ string = "✝️"
=> "✝️"
$ string.length
=> 2

$ string[0]
=> "✝"
$ string[1]
=> "️"
$ string[1] == "\xEF\xB8\x8F"
=> true

Encoding

$ Rumoji.encode string
=> ":latin_cross:️"
$ Rumoji.decode Rumoji.encode(string)
=> "✝️"

$ Rumoji.encode string[0]
=> ":latin_cross:"
$ Rumoji.decode Rumoji.encode(string[0])
=> "✝"

$ Rumoji.encode string[1]
=> "️"
$ Rumoji.decode Rumoji.encode string[1]
=> "️"