SyntaxError: Non-UTF-8 code starting with '\xe7'

Question

I made a program which contains chinese and russian words, but when I ran it, I had a problem with the encoding

In the code that I shared, a complete sentence with some Russian and Chinese characters is shown. With that variable assignment the SyntaxError arises. But when i write sentence=input(), when the user enters the same sentence no error appears.

sentence='n紙sнo頭q愛z語u買gлd娜xтgлj鳥u買gлcхd娜u買 рj鳥pщi魚d娜gлh園d娜gлn紙r無z語 рr無pщl電pщv書kмz語u買gлkмu買o頭d娜r無n紙r無d娜o頭pщh園z語gлh園d娜gлpщcхo頭z語gлu買kмwзd娜cхgлsнgлz語r無kмd娜u買o頭pщh園z語gлpщgлz語aчi魚d娜o頭z語xтgлv書z語u買gлd娜cхgлv書j鳥pщcхgлn紙z語h園d娜l電z語xтgлv書r無d娜pщr無gлo頭z語h園z語gлo頭kмn紙z語gлh園d娜gлpщn紙cхkмv書pщv書kмz語u買d娜xтgлd娜u買o頭r無d娜gлxтj鳥xтgлh園kмwзd娜r無xтz語xтgлo頭kмn紙z語xтgлh園d娜gлd娜xтo頭r無j鳥v書o頭j鳥r無pщxтgлh園d娜gлh園pщo頭z語xтgлxтd娜gлd娜u買v書j鳥d娜u買o頭r無pщgлh園kмv書v書kмz語u買pщr無kмz語xтgлh園d娜gлh園pщo頭z語xтgлd娜u買gлd娜xтo頭d娜gлo頭j鳥o頭z語r無kмpщcхgлpщn紙r無d娜u買h園d娜r無d娜l電z語xтgлpщgлj鳥o頭kмcхkмñсpщr無gлd娜xтo頭pщgлd娜xтo頭r無j鳥v書o頭j鳥r無pщgлr無d娜wзkмxтpщu買h園z語gлxтj鳥xтgлl電d娜o頭z語h園z語xтgлl電pщxтgлj鳥o頭kмcхkмñсpщh園z語xт'

SyntaxError: Non-UTF-8 code starting with '\xe5' in file hjs.py on line 1, but no encoding declared; see http://python.org/dev/peps/pep-0263/ for details

How can I solve it?

Answer 1

First of all, welcome to Stack Overflow! Second, you could solve your problem by using Python 3 or, for Python 2, following what is said in this answer .

But why?

Well, according to the aforementioned PEP 263 ,

Python will default to ASCII as standard encoding if no other encoding hints are given.

And in the PEP you can see the same thing that the mentioned answer says, to add the line # -*- coding: <encoding name> -*-

And why isn't Python 3 affected by this issue? As said in here ,

Since Python 3.0, the language's str type contains Unicode characters(...)

So there is no need for adding the coding magic comment.

For more on that the full unicode article linked above is a great reading, and as it is a classic in StackOverflow, please see this .