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Python

Randolph Stephen Pleyto
Randolph Stephen Pleyto
7,832 Points
Posted by Randolph Stephen Pleyto
Randolph Stephen Pleyto
7,832 Points

Can't encode character when printing data read from names.txt

Hi!

I followed the steps in the video and tried to read the data inside names.txt but when I try to print the contents of the data variable, it gives me the following Traceback error:

"UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character '\xd6' in position 214: ordinal not in range(128)"

I saw some people solve this using the django library but I'm not there, yet. Are there other ways to resolve this error?

Here's my code:

names_file = open('names_file.txt', encoding="utf-8")
data = names_file.read()
names_file.close()
print(data)

Contents of the names_file.txt is the same as the one used in the video.

Many thanks!

[MOD: added ```python formatting -cf]

Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,441 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,441 Points

It appears to work in Python 3. Are you using Python 2?

>>> names_file = open('names.txt', encoding="utf-8")
>>> data = names_file.read()
>>> names_file.close()
>>> print(data)
Love, Kenneth   kenneth@teamtreehouse.com       (555) 555-5555  Teacher, Treehouse      @kennethlove
McFarland, Dave dave@teamtreehouse.com  (555) 555-5554  Teacher, Treehouse
Arthur, King    king_arthur@camelot.co.uk               King, Camelot
Österberg, Sven-Erik    governor@norrbotten.co.se               Governor, Norrbotten    @sverik
, Tim   tim@killerrabbit.com            Enchanter, Killer Rabbit Cave
Carson, Ryan    ryan@teamtreehouse.com  (555) 555-5543  CEO, Treehouse  @ryancarson
Doctor, The     doctor+companion@tardis.co.uk           Time Lord, Gallifrey
Exampleson, Example     me@example.com  555-555-5552    Example, Example Co.    @example
Obama, Barack   president.44@us.gov     555 555-5551    President, United States of America     @potus44
Chalkley, Andrew        andrew@teamtreehouse.com        (555) 555-5553  Teacher, Treehouse      @chalkers
Vader, Darth    darth-vader@empire.gov  (555) 555-4444  Sith Lord, Galactic Empire      @darthvader
Fernández de la Vega Sanz, María Teresa mtfvs@spain.gov         First Deputy Prime Minister, Spanish Govt.
>>>

1 Answer

Randolph Stephen Pleyto
Randolph Stephen Pleyto
7,832 Points
Randolph Stephen Pleyto
Randolph Stephen Pleyto
7,832 Points

Update:

Tried running it again in Terminal and it works fine. I was using VS Code with the Python and Code Runner plugin installed. There must be something in the Code Runner that can't encode the character.

Workaround: run the code in terminal instead.