Python Notepad++ encoding error

Question

I am using Python for the first time and am running into an encoding error that I can't seem to get around. Here is the code:

   #!/usr/bin/python
   #-*- coding: utf -*-
   import pandas as pd
   a = "C:\Users"
   print(a) 

When I do this, I get:

File "C:\\Users\\Public\\Documents\\Python Scripts\\ImportExcel.py", line 5 a = "C:\\Users" ^ SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes in positio n 2-3: truncated \\UXXXXXXXX escape

In Notepad++ I have tried all of the encoding options. Nothing seems to work. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Specifically, the problem is that the '\\' is an escape character. If you want to print the string "C:\\Users" then you have to do it thus:

a = "C:\\Users"

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

The error message suggests you're on a Windows machine, but you're using *nix notation for #!/usr/bin/python . That line should look something like #!C:\\Python33\\python.exe on a Windows machine, depending on where you've installed Python.

Answer 3

使用此代码： # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-代替#-- coding: utf --

Answer 4

You can set the encoding in Notepad++, but you also need to tell Python about it.

In legacy Python (2.7), source code is ASCII unless specified otherwise. In Python 3, source code is UTF-8 unless otherwise specified.

You should use the following as the first or second line of the file to specify the encoding of the source code. The documentation gives:

# -*- coding: <encoding> -*-

This is the format originally from the Emacs editor, but according to PEP263 you can also use:

# vim: set fileencoding=<encoding>:

of even:

# coding=<encoding>

Where <encoding> can be any encoding that Python supports, but utf-8 is generally a good choice for portable code.