Unicodeescape codec can't decode bytes in position 2-3

You can solve this error by using a raw string, indicated by prefixing your string with the letter "r". Raw strings treat backslashes as literal characters and don't interpret them as escape characters.

path = r"C:\Users\User\Documents\file.txt"

'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes

This error message is raised when Python encounters a string that contains an incomplete or incorrectly formatted Unicode escape sequence.

Unicode escape sequences start with a backslash ("") followed by either "u" or "U", and then up to 8 hexadecimal digits representing a Unicode code point. For example, "\u2713" represents the checkmark symbol.

The error message indicates that Python encountered a string with a truncated Unicode escape sequence, meaning it lacks the required number of hexadecimal digits. The position 2-3 in the error message refers to the location in the string where the error occurred. To fix this, you should ensure that the Unicode escape sequences in your strings are complete and have the correct format.

How to solve unicode error?

You can solve this Error "(unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape" by usinf following methods.

  1. Double the backslashes in your string
  2. Use a raw string
  3. Use forward slashes instead of backslashes

Double the backslashes in your string

If your string contains backslashes, they may be interpreted as escape characters. To avoid this, you can double each backslash in the string.

path = "C:\\Users\\User\\Documents\\file.txt"

Use a raw string

If you don't want to double the backslashes, you can use a raw string by prefixing your string with the letter "r". Raw strings don't interpret backslashes as escape characters.

path = r"C:\Users\User\Documents\file.txt"

Use forward slashes instead of backslashes

In some cases, you can use forward slashes instead of backslashes to separate directories and files in a path.

path = "C:/Users/User/Documents/file.txt"

By using one of these methods, you should be able to avoid the error caused by the Unicode escape sequence.

What is Unicode escape sequences?

Unicode escape sequences are used to represent Unicode characters in a string using a special syntax. Unicode is a character encoding standard that assigns a unique number (code point) to each character in most of the world's writing systems.

The syntax for a Unicode escape sequence starts with a backslash ("") followed by either "u" or "U" and up to 8 hexadecimal digits representing a Unicode code point. For instance, the Unicode escape sequence "\u2713" represents the checkmark symbol.

Following is an example of how you can use Unicode escape sequences to include non-ASCII characters in a Python string:


(unicode error) unicodeescape codec can't decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape

In the above example, the Unicode escape sequences "\u4f60" and "\u597d" are used to represent the Chinese characters for "you" and "good".

Conclusion

Unicode escape sequences can be utilized in both single-quoted ('...') and double-quoted ("...") strings in Python. However, it's important to note that in Python 3, strings are Unicode by default, so you can directly include Unicode characters in a string without using escape sequences, as long as you use the appropriate character encoding.






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