# Support hebrew characters in logs

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/support-hebrew-characters-in-logs/81168>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [April 4, 2017, 3:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/support-hebrew-characters-in-logs/81168 "2017-04-04T15:17:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![orlevy08](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b77776/32.png) [@orlevy08](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/orlevy08)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 3:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/support-hebrew-characters-in-logs/81168/1 "2017-04-04T15:17:53Z")

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Hi All,  
I have an issue with logstash parsing using grok:  
When some hebrew characters are placed in the log the result i see is ?????? instead of the user name (for example: if the user name is בלהבלה i get ??????)

Is there a way to sort it out?  
I've tried to use the following filter with no avail:  
codec =\> plain{  
charset =\> "UTF-8"  
}

to better explain, this is how my input section looks like:  
file{  
path=\> "C:\Patches\532915\Test999.txt"  
start\_position =\> "beginning"  
codec =\> plain{  
charset =\> "UTF-16"  
}  
}

and output:  
output {  
stdout { codec =\> rubydebug}  
}

Thank you !

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![magnusbaeck](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/magnusbaeck/32/44943_2.png) [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 5:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/support-hebrew-characters-in-logs/81168/2 "2017-04-06T05:01:23Z")

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What character set does the log have?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![orlevy08](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b77776/32.png) [@orlevy08](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/orlevy08)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 6:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/support-hebrew-characters-in-logs/81168/3 "2017-04-06T06:47:21Z")

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the Input log is UTF-8 however, we are going to use splunk in the future.  
Is there a way to force the input to be UTF-8?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![magnusbaeck](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/magnusbaeck/32/44943_2.png) [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 7:31am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/support-hebrew-characters-in-logs/81168/4 "2017-04-06T07:31:10Z")

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> Is there a way to force the input to be UTF-8?

I'd expect `charset => "UTF-8"` to work. If it doesn't I don't know what's up.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![orlevy08](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b77776/32.png) [@orlevy08](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/orlevy08)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/support-hebrew-characters-in-logs/81168/5 "2017-04-06T15:29:58Z")

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In a strange way, we have managed to solve this issue by adding:  
codec =\> plain{  
charset =\> "Windows-1252"  
}

instead of UTF-8 (although the input is in UTF-8)....  
Thank you !

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 3:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/support-hebrew-characters-in-logs/81168/6 "2017-05-04T15:30:51Z")

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