How can I make Notepad to save text in UTF-8 without the BOM?

Question

I have a CSV file with special accents and save it in Notepad by selecting UTF-8 encoding. When I read the file using Java, it reads the BOM characters too.

So I want to save this file in UTF-8 format without appending a BOM initially in Notepad.

Otherwise, is there a built-in class in Java that eliminates the BOM characters that present at beginning, when reading the contents in a file?

Answer 1

1. Use Notepad++ - it is free and much better than Notepad. It will help to save text without a BOM using Encoding → Encode in UTF-8 without BOM:
   
   Notepad++ v6 and olders:
   
   Notepad++ v7+:
   

2. When I encountered this problem in Java, I didn't find any library to parse these first three bytes (BOM). So my advice:

   • Use PushbackInputStream(in, 3).
   • Read the first three bytes
   • If it's not BOM (EF BB BF), push them back
   • Process the stream as UTF-8