Using a map with either a text or csv file, when I preview the map I see extra characters at the beginning of the first column name.   If I open the file it looks completely normal with no extra characters. 

Here is my preview from SmartConnect:


However this is my file when I open it in Notepad, where are these characters coming from?

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These are hidden characters in a UTF-8-BOM file. The UTF-8-BOM is a sequence of bytes at the start of a text stream (0xEF, 0xBB, 0xBF) that allows the reader to more reliably guess a file as being encoded in UTF-8.

Normally, the BOM is used to signal the endianness of an encoding, but since endianness is irrelevant to UTF-8, the BOM is unnecessary.

According to the Unicode standard section 2.6, the use of a BOM is neither required nor recommended for UTF-8, but may be encountered in contexts where UTF-8 data is converted from other encoding forms that use a BOM or where the BOM is used as a UTF-8 signature.  

Link to the UNICODE standard document

SmartConnect will not work with UTF-8-BOM files, they need to be converted to standard UTF-8 encoding.