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I got some special characters in my codes, take a look at:


 a


 
 


It's just shown in frontend with normal characters like an "a". Now the same characters without any normal characters:

Characters starts here








Characters ends here

Ok it looks like this Editor will not save empty 
 , try it with snippet. 

<html><p>
    </p></html>

The problem is, in PhpStorm this characters wont be shown, even not with

"settings - Editor - General - Appearance - show whitespaces" or

"settings - Editor - General - Appearance - show method separators"

Only "strg+f, strg+r" will find this characters.

I think this character is an "only-mac-char" :) I'm working with Windows, and I can't test it on mac.

EDIT: Sorry i could identify it as "U+2028 : LINE SEPARATOR" http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Unicode/whatisit.html

The big problem is that phpStorm didn't show anything in the code. Like there is no character, but moving with the arrow keys notice 2 steps at this position, between 2 tags looks like "><" but it's "> <".

Ruwen Gastrock
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  • What characters are you talking about? In any case -- IDE has no options to show invisible chars or stuff like line ending. – LazyOne Dec 23 '16 at 09:09
  • https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-115572 -- consider voting for it – LazyOne Dec 23 '16 at 11:58

1 Answers1

9

Based on your update it is now clear what character you have in mind:

Sorry I could identify it as "U+2028 : LINE SEPARATOR" http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Unicode/whatisit.html

Install and use Zero Width Characters locator 2 plugin: it can detect quite a few invisible characters (e.g. UTF-8 BOOM sequence, non-breakable space, Unicode line separator (your case) etc).

It is implemented as a separate inspection with highest (Error) severity so will be easy to spot or check the whole folder/project just for these issues.

There is a ticket (Feature Request) to have an option to show invisible characters in the editor.

https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-115572 -- watch this ticket (star/vote/comment) to get notified on any progress. implemented in 2020.2 version.

Other related tickets:

UPDATE 2021-11-10:
As of 2020.2 version the IDE can show invisible/special symbols right in the editor.

An example:
enter image description here

LazyOne
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  • Well, looks like the right plugin... but this will break phpstorm in some files! "out of Memory" when to enter one line seperator. Try it: http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2028/index.htm get the "L SEP" Icon under "Java Data", copy and paste it into your phpstorm file (failed in constants.ts). But works in css, html and php files! :) And that's what i need, i hope i will find an option to disable this inspection for some files. – Ruwen Gastrock Jan 09 '17 at 11:51
  • @RuwenGastrock Any Inspection can use Scopes functionality so can be enabled/disabled on this basis. 1) create new Scope and include specific files there 2) In Inspections -- find that particular inspection and add new scope: make it disabled for the scope created in #1 and enabled everywhere else. – LazyOne Jan 09 '17 at 12:04
  • saved me from breakdown! – Offirmo Oct 18 '17 at 00:03
  • @LazyOne Last Year i'd ran into an similar error again. Just as an Info for anyone who is landing here: There is a newer Plugin called: "Zero Width Characters locator 2" i recommend to use that one. – Ruwen Gastrock Jan 09 '20 at 15:47
  • @RuwenGastrock Thanks for letting me know. Looks like it has the same functionality to me, maybe just updated to be better compatible with new/future IDE versions (the way how it runs inspections, platform compatibility etc) – LazyOne Jan 09 '20 at 16:36