# RCall.jl and Unicode

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/rcall-jl-and-unicode/67654>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** rcall\
**Created:** [September 3, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/rcall-jl-and-unicode/67654 "2021-09-03T15:25:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![matvil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/matvil/32/15727_2.png) [@matvil](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/matvil)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/rcall-jl-and-unicode/67654/1 "2021-09-03T15:25:13Z")

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R on Windows does not seem to support unicode (UTF-8), at least not the non-experimental versions.  
I am currently doing a workaround where I copy all unicode arguments in Julia to ascii before passing them to R via RCall.jl (see first line in the function below).  
Clearly not a great solution with extra storage. Any advice on how to solve this more elegantly? I could of course use only ascii in the julia function arguments directly, but that would make the user experience and docs less friendly.

```julia
function artsim(n, d, λ, ϕ, θ, μ, σ)
    lambda = λ; phi = ϕ; theta = θ; mu = μ; sigma = σ; # No unicode in R-Windows 🤦‍♂️
    R"""
        library(artfima)
        x = artsim($n, $d, $lambda, $phi, $theta, $mu, $sigma)
    """
    @rget x
return x
end

```

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**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 3:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/rcall-jl-and-unicode/67654/2 "2021-09-03T15:37:53Z")

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What do you mean “extra storage”? Just creating new bindings won’t allocate if that’s what you’re worried about.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![matvil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/matvil/32/15727_2.png) [@matvil](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/matvil)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/rcall-jl-and-unicode/67654/3 "2021-09-03T17:33:52Z")

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Yes, of course, you’re right. But it clutters the code. Is there a better way, or do I just live with this?