Using PrintWriter, I am getting Chinese junk characters in browser

I am using PrintWriter as follows to get the output in the browser:

PrintWriter pw = response.getwriter();
StringBuffer sb = getTextFromDatabase();
pw.print(sb);

However, this prints the following Chinese junk characters:

格㸳潃浭湥獴⼼㍨‾琼扡敬㰾牴戠捧汯牯✽䔣䔷䔷❆㰾摴倾獯整⁤湏›〱㈭ⴷ〲〱ㄠ㨴㌰㔺਱‬祂›教桳慷瑮丠祡歡⠊湹祡歡捀獩潣挮浯਩硅散汬湥㱴琯㹤⼼牴㰾牴戠捧汯牯✽䔣䔷䔷❆㰾摴㰾琯㹤⼼牴㰾牴戠捧汯牯✽䔣䔷䔷❆㰾摴倾獯整⁤湏›〱㈭ⴷ〲〱ㄠ㨴㐰ㄺ਱‬祂›教桳慷瑮丠祡歡⠊湹祡歡捀獩潣挮浯਩敶祲朠潯㱤琯㹤⼼牴㰾牴戠捧汯牯✽䔣䔷䔷❆㰾摴㰾琯㹤⼼牴㰾牴戠捧汯牯✽䔣䔷䔷❆㰾摴倾獯整⁤湏›〱㈭ⴷ〲〱ㄠ㨴㜱㌺ਸ਼‬祂›教桳慷瑮丠祡歡⠊湹祡歡捀獩潣挮浯਩桔獩椠⁳潴琠獥㱴琯㹤⼼牴㰾琯扡敬㰾牢⼠‾格㸳潐瑳夠畯⁲潃浭湥㱴栯㸳㰠潦浲愠瑣潩㵮䌢浯敭瑮即牥汶瑥•敭桴摯∽敧≴渠浡㵥挢浯敭瑮潆浲•湯畳浢瑩∽爠瑥牵慖楬慤整潆浲⤨∻‾琼扡敬†眠摩桴∽〳∰栠楥桧㵴㌢〰㸢ठ琼㹲琼㹤氼扡汥映牯∽慮敭㸢潃浭湥㩴猼慰汣獡㵳洢湡呤汃獡≳⨾⼼灳湡㰾氯扡汥㰾牢㸯琼硥慴敲⁡慮敭∽潣瑮湥≴椠㵤挢浯敭瑮硔䅴敲≡挠慬獳∽整瑸牡慥氠牡敧•潣獬∽㠲•潲獷∽∶㸠⼼整瑸牡慥㰾琯㹤⼼牴㰾牴㰾摴㰾慬敢潦㵲渢浡≥举浡㩥猼慰汣獡㵳洢湡呤汃獡≳⨾⼼灳湡㰾氯扡汥㰾开发者_JAVA技巧牢㸯椼灮瑵椠㵤渢浡≥琠灹㵥琢硥≴渠浡㵥渢浡≥挠慬獳∽慮敭•慶畬㵥∢洠硡敬杮桴∽㔲∵†楳敺∽㘳⼢㰾琯㹤⼼牴㰾牴㰾摴㰾慬敢潦㵲攢慭汩㸢ⵅ慍汩㰺灳湡挠慬獳∽慭摮䍔慬獳㸢㰪猯慰㹮⼼慬敢㹬戼⽲㰾湩異⁴摩∽浥楡≬琠灹㵥琢硥≴渠浡㵥攢慭汩•汣獡㵳攢慭汩•慶畬㵥∢洠硡敬杮桴∽㔲∵†楳敺∽㘳⼢㰾琯㹤⼼牴㰾牴㰾摴㰾湩異⁴琠灹㵥猢扵業≴†慮敭∽潰瑳•慶畬㵥倢獯≴㸯⼼摴㰾琯㹲⼼慴汢㹥⼼潦浲

I tried to use String instead of StringBuffer, but that didn't help. I also tried to set the content type header as follows

 response.setContentType("text/html;charset=UTF-8");

before getting the response writer, but that did also not help.

In the DB there are no issues with the data as I have used the same data for 2 different purposes. In one I get correct output, but in other I get the above junk. I have used the above code in JSP using scriptlets. I have also given content type for the JSP.

Getting Chinese characters as Mojibake indicates that you're incorrectly showing UTF-16LE data as UTF-8. UTF16-LE stores each character in 4 bytes. In UTF-8, the 4-byte panels contains usually CJK (Chinese/Japanese/Korean) characters.

To fix this, you need to either show the data as UTF-16LE or to have stored the data in the DB as UTF-8 from the beginning on. Since you're attempting to display them as UTF-8, I think that your DB has to be reconfigured/converted to use UTF-8 instead of UTF-16LE.

Unrelated to the concrete problem, storing HTML (that was what those characters originally represent) in a database is really a bad idea ;) This was the original content:

<h3>Comments</h3> <table><tr bgcolor='#E7E7EF'><td>Posted On: 10-27-2010 14:03:51
, By: Yeshwant Nayak
(ynayak@cisco.com)
Excellent</td></tr><tr bgcolor='#E7E7EF'><td></td></tr><tr bgcolor='#E7E7EF'><td>Posted On: 10-27-2010 14:04:11
, By: Yeshwant Nayak
(ynayak@cisco.com)
very good</td></tr><tr bgcolor='#E7E7EF'><td></td></tr><tr bgcolor='#E7E7EF'><td>Posted On: 10-27-2010 14:17:36
, By: Yeshwant Nayak
(ynayak@cisco.com)
This is to test</td></tr></table><br /> <h3>Post Your Comment</h3> <form action="CommentsServlet" method="get" name="commentForm" onsubmit=" return ValidateForm();"> <table   width="300" height="300">    <tr><td><label for="name">Comment:<span class="mandTClass">*</span></label><br/><textarea name="content" id="commentTxtArea" class="textarea large" cols="28" rows="6" ></textarea></td></tr><tr><td><label for="name">Name:<span class="mandTClass">*</span></label><br/><input id="name" type="text" name="name" class="name" value="" maxlength="255"  size="36"/></td></tr><tr><td><label for="email">E-Mail:<span class="mandTClass">*</span></label><br/><input id="email" type="text" name="email" class="email" value="" maxlength="255"  size="36"/></td></tr><tr><td><input  type="submit"  name="post" value="Post"/></td></tr></table></form

Here's how you can turn this incorrectly encoded Chinese back to normal characters:

String incorrect = "格㸳潃浭湥獴⼼㍨‾琼扡敬㰾牴戠捧汯";
String original = new String(incorrect.getBytes("UTF-16LE"), "UTF-8");

Note that this should not be used as solution! It was just posted as an evidence of the root cause of the problem.

Clearly, you have some kind of encoding problem here, but my guess is it is on the server or database side, not in the browser.

In the DB there are no issues with the data as i have used the same data for 2 different options,but in one i get correct output n in other junk.

I don't find that argument convincing. In fact, I think you may be overlooking the real cause of the problem.

What I think you need to do is add some server-side logging to capture what is actually in that StringBuffer that you are sending to the PrintWriter

Also, look at what is different about the way that the server side handles the "2 different options". (What do you mean by that phrase?).

Finally, please provide some REAL code, not just 3 line snippets that won't compile.