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

Question

I'm trying to read a CSV file into Python (Spyder), but I keep getting an error. My code:

import csv

data = open("C:\Users\miche\Documents\school\jaar2\MIK\2.6\vektis_agb_zorgverlener")
data = csv.reader(data)
print(data)

I get the following error:

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

I have tried to replace the \ with \ or with / and I've tried to put an r before "C.., but all these things didn't work.

Answer 1

This error occurs, because you are using a normal string as a path. You can use one of the three following solutions to fix your problem:

1: Just put r before your normal string. It converts a normal string to a raw string:

pandas.read_csv(r"C:\Users\DeePak\Desktop\myac.csv")

2:

pandas.read_csv("C:/Users/DeePak/Desktop/myac.csv")

3:

pandas.read_csv("C:\\Users\\DeePak\\Desktop\\myac.csv")

Answer 2

The first backslash in your string is being interpreted as a special character. In fact, because it's followed by a "U", it's being interpreted as the start of a Unicode code point.

To fix this, you need to escape the backslashes in the string. The direct way to do this is by doubling the backslashes:

data = open("C:\\Users\\miche\\Documents\\school\\jaar2\\MIK\\2.6\\vektis_agb_zorgverlener")

If you don't want to escape backslashes in a string, and you don't have any need for escape codes or quotation marks in the string, you can instead use a "raw" string, using "r" just before it, like so:

data = open(r"C:\Users\miche\Documents\school\jaar2\MIK\2.6\vektis_agb_zorgverlener")