Subject Re: Computer serial number From Mervyn Bick <invalid@invalid.invalid> Date Sat, 20 Apr 2024 13:38:01 +0200 Newsgroups dbase.getting-started On 2024/04/20 12:19, Akshat Kapoor wrote: > I just ran the above code and checked the file in an online hex editor. > There were plenty of junk special characters. The FF and FE as the first two characters in the file are a Byte Order Marker (BOM) and indicate that the contents of the file are encoded as UTF-16 Little Endian i.e with the least significant bit to the right. Editors such as Notepad++, and even lowly old Notepad, recognise the BOM and decode and display the file correctly.  As you are using Notepad++ in dBASE, open the file and look at the Encoding menu. Unfortunately the dBASE sourcecode editor doesn't know what to do with the BOM and gives up the moment it finds the first null. :-( Mervyn.