# Mactex + Texstudio Mojave new installation: Package inputenc Error: Unicode character 〖 (U+3016) [closed]

It's been a while since my last time using Mactex + Texstudio, which worked fine back then. Now with fresh installation I'm getting the below error:

Package inputenc Error: Unicode character 〖 (U+3016)(inputenc) not set up for use with LaTeX. \end{align}
Package inputenc Error: Unicode character 〗 (U+3017)(inputenc) not set up for use with LaTeX. \end{align}


I've tried to:

1. Define the settings for UTF-8

Well this was not enough

1. \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{3016}{\{}
\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{3017}{\}}


Which worked.

But I don't understand why I was getting this error, the specific file that was pointed by the error hold nearly the same "align" block:

No error block:

\begin{align}\label{eq:unixy} \nonumber
F_z(z)&=\mathbb{P}(\max(x,y)\leq z)\\
&=\mathbb{P}[(x\leq z,x>y)\cup(y\leq z,x\leq y)] \nonumber\\
&=\mathbb{P}[(x\leq z,x>y)+(y\leq z),x\leq y]
\end{align}


Error block:

\begin{align}\label{eq:minCDF}
F_Z (z)&=\mathbb{P}(\min(x,y)\le z)=\mathbb{P}(-\max(-x,-y)\le z)\nonumber\\
&=\mathbb{P}(\max〖(-x,-y)\geq -z〗 )\nonumber\\
&=1-\mathbb{P}(\max(-x,-y)\leq-z)\nonumber\\
&=1-\mathbb{P}(-x\le-z)\mathbb{P}(-y\le-z)
\end{align}


## closed as off-topic by user156344, Phelype Oleinik, Bobyandbob, Sebastiano, RaajaMay 10 at 11:57

• This question does not fall within the scope of TeX, LaTeX or related typesetting systems as defined in the help center.
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

• (1) welcome, (2) as always on this site, please provide a full minimal example instead of sniplets like this where we have to guess a lot in order to test your code. – daleif May 10 at 9:32
• See there! &=\mathbb{P}(\max〖(-x,-y)\geq -z〗 )\nonumber. 〖 and 〗 are there! That is why you gets the error. – user156344 May 10 at 9:41
• Oh I missed it! thought the error message point to the "\end{align}" thanks! – Udi_W May 10 at 9:45
• I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is solved in comments. – user156344 May 10 at 9:55

With older releases of LaTeX you'd get no output at all from the two Unicode characters, but a series of warnings

Missing character: There is no <E3> in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no <80> in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no <96> in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no <E3> in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no <80> in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no <97> in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no <E3> in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no <80> in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no <96> in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no <E3> in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no <80> in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no <97> in font cmr10!


Starting from TeX Live 2018, you'd get the error, because UTF-8 has become the default input encoding.

The \DeclareUnicodeCharacter way is what you need.

I'd also use split, in this case.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}

\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{3016}{\{}
\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{3017}{\}}

\begin{document}

$$\label{eq:minCDF} \begin{split} F_Z (z)&=\mathbb{P}(\min(x,y)\le z)=\mathbb{P}(-\max(-x,-y)\le z)\\ &=\mathbb{P}(\max〖(-x,-y)\geq -z〗 )\\ &=1-\mathbb{P}(\max(-x,-y)\leq-z)\\ &=1-\mathbb{P}(-x\le-z)\mathbb{P}(-y\le-z) \end{split}$$

\end{document}


Of course, if you don't want output from the two characters, use

\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{3016}{}
\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{3017}{}