Python--output file has Chinese characters

Question

My goal is to simply have +1 and -1 in my output.txt file, yet I keep getting Chinese characters

ㄭㄫㄫㄫㄫㄭ

The code snippet below works fine in a separate Python file:

f = open('C:\\Users\\Max\\Downloads\\output.txt', 'w', encoding='ascii')
f.write('+1')
f.write('-1')

Yet generates Chinese characters when I put it into another project:

if(algorithm==1):
     f.write('+1')
else:
     f.write('-1')

The code is successfully going into the if/else statements (debugged). Any idea on what's wrong?

Looked at: Why is python writing out in Chinese characters?

Answer 1

Used

encoding='cp1252'

And it printed out successfully without having to use '\\n'. Caught it when PyCharm listed it on the debugger while debugging.