"SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ..." or "SyntaxError: Non-UTF-8 code starting with ..." trying to use non-ASCII text in a Python script

"SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ..." or "SyntaxError: Non-UTF-8 code starting with ..." trying to use non-ASCII text in a Python script

The "SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character" or "SyntaxError: Non-UTF-8 code starting with" error occurs when you try to use non-ASCII characters in a Python script without specifying the character encoding. Python 3 assumes that source code is in UTF-8 by default, and if you use non-ASCII characters, you need to indicate the encoding at the beginning of the script.

To resolve this issue, you should add a special comment, known as a "coding declaration," at the beginning of your Python script to specify the character encoding. Commonly used character encodings include UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1 (also known as Latin-1).

Here's how to specify the encoding at the beginning of your Python script:

For UTF-8 encoding:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

For ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) encoding:

# -*- coding: latin-1 -*-

For example, if you have a Python script with non-ASCII characters and you want to use UTF-8 encoding, your script should start like this:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# Your Python code with non-ASCII characters below

By adding the appropriate encoding declaration at the beginning of your script, Python will correctly interpret the non-ASCII characters, and you should no longer encounter the "SyntaxError" related to non-ASCII characters or encoding issues.

Examples

  1. "How to fix 'SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character' in Python script?" Description: This query seeks solutions for resolving the 'SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character' encountered when attempting to use non-ASCII characters in a Python script.

    # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
print("Hello, こんにちは")

    Code Description: This code snippet demonstrates adding the UTF-8 encoding declaration to the script using the comment # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-, allowing Python to interpret non-ASCII characters correctly.

  2. "Resolving 'SyntaxError: Non-UTF-8 code starting with' in Python script" Description: This query focuses on resolving the 'SyntaxError: Non-UTF-8 code starting with' error when using non-UTF-8 characters in a Python script.

    # -*- coding: latin-1 -*-
print("Hello, åäö")

    Code Description: This code snippet demonstrates specifying the Latin-1 encoding declaration using # -*- coding: latin-1 -*-, indicating to Python that the script contains non-UTF-8 characters and allowing it to handle them correctly.

  3. "Python script error: Non-ASCII character with 'SyntaxError'" Description: This query addresses the 'SyntaxError' caused by non-ASCII characters encountered in a Python script.

    #!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*-
print("Hello, éàè")

    Code Description: This code snippet demonstrates specifying the ISO-8859-1 encoding declaration using # -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*-, indicating to Python that the script contains non-ASCII characters encoded in ISO-8859-1 format.

  4. "How to handle 'SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character' in Python script?" Description: This query seeks methods for handling the 'SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character' encountered due to non-ASCII characters in a Python script.

    # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
print(u"Hello, こんにちは")

    Code Description: This code snippet demonstrates using Unicode literals (prefixed with 'u') for strings containing non-ASCII characters, allowing Python 2 to handle them without syntax errors.

  5. "Fixing Python script error: Non-UTF-8 code starting with" Description: This query focuses on fixing the 'SyntaxError: Non-UTF-8 code starting with' error arising from non-UTF-8 characters in a Python script.

    # -*- coding: iso-8859-15 -*-
print("Hello, åäö")

    Code Description: This code snippet demonstrates specifying the ISO-8859-15 encoding declaration using # -*- coding: iso-8859-15 -*-, indicating to Python that the script contains non-UTF-8 characters encoded in ISO-8859-15 format.

  6. "Resolving 'SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character' with non-ASCII text in Python script" Description: This query seeks solutions for resolving the 'SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character' encountered when using non-ASCII text in a Python script.

    # -*- coding: cp1252 -*-
print("Hello, ñ")

    Code Description: This code snippet demonstrates specifying the CP1252 encoding declaration using # -*- coding: cp1252 -*-, indicating to Python that the script contains non-ASCII characters encoded in CP1252 format.

  7. "Handling non-ASCII characters in Python script: SyntaxError" Description: This query focuses on handling non-ASCII characters in a Python script to avoid 'SyntaxError' occurrences.

    # coding: latin-1
print("Hello, åäö")

    Code Description: This code snippet demonstrates specifying the Latin-1 encoding declaration using # coding: latin-1, indicating to Python that the script contains non-ASCII characters encoded in Latin-1 format.

  8. "Python script error: 'Non-ASCII character' with 'SyntaxError'" Description: This query addresses the 'SyntaxError' caused by non-ASCII characters encountered in a Python script.

    # -*- coding: cp1251 -*-
print("Hello, ё")

    Code Description: This code snippet demonstrates specifying the CP1251 encoding declaration using # -*- coding: cp1251 -*-, indicating to Python that the script contains non-ASCII characters encoded in CP1251 format.

  9. "Resolving 'SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character' when using non-ASCII text in Python" Description: This query seeks methods to resolve the 'SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character' when utilizing non-ASCII text in a Python script.

    # -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*-
print("Hello, éàè")

    Code Description: This code snippet demonstrates specifying the ISO-8859-1 encoding declaration using # -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*-, indicating to Python that the script contains non-ASCII characters encoded in ISO-8859-1 format.

  10. "Fixing 'SyntaxError: Non-UTF-8 code starting with' in Python script" Description: This query focuses on fixing the 'SyntaxError: Non-UTF-8 code starting with' error when encountering non-UTF-8 characters in a Python script.

    # -*- coding: cp1252 -*-
print("Hello, ñ")

    Code Description: This code snippet demonstrates specifying the CP1252 encoding declaration using # -*- coding: cp1252 -*-, indicating to Python that the script contains non-UTF-8 characters encoded in CP1252 format.

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