“error: stray '\342' ”, “stray '\200' ”, “stray '\213' ” in C compiling

Question

Here is my code

int main()​
{
    float avg, age[] = { 23.4, 55, 22.6, 3, 40.5, 18 };
    avg = average(age); /* Only name of array is passed as argument. */
    printf("Average age=%.2f", avg);
    return 0;
}

Compilation error in int main():

error: stray '\342' in program
error: stray '\200' in program
error: stray '\213' in program

Answer 1

You have "crap characters" in your source file.

\342 \200 \213 is octal for 0xE2 0x80 0x8B which is a zero width space in UTF-8 (Unicode U+200B), something no C compiler can make sense of (and something you can't see, zero-width after all, when UTF-8 is displayed correctly).

-> Use a text or code editor (even Windows' Notepad should do, if not saving as UTF-8, but any other editor would be better) and/or an integrated development environment to write your code. Don't ever use word processors or the like, that might introduce unwanted characters.

Answer 2

Use the following website. It will show you bad characters and then remove them:

View non-printable Unicode characters