How to Read and Write Unicode Files in Python: A Guide to Encoding and Decoding?

Unicode (UTF-8) Reading and Writing to Files in Python

In Python, dealing with Unicode in files can be tricky. Let's explore some common misunderstandings and find elegant solutions.

Understanding Unicode Encodings

Python strings are Unicode objects that encode characters using various character encodings, like UTF-8. When writing a string to a file, we need to decide how to encode it. The 'utf8' encoding converts Unicode characters to a sequence of bytes.

Opening Files with Specified Encoding

Rather than relying on .encode and .decode, it's better to specify the encoding when opening the file. In Python 2.6 and later, the io module provides io.open with an encoding parameter. In Python 3.x, the built-in open function supports this as well.

<code class="python">import io
f = io.open("test", "r", encoding="utf-8")</code>

This will open the file in UTF-8 mode, and f.read() will return a decoded Unicode object.

Using codecs Module

Alternatively, we can use open from the codecs module.

<code class="python">import codecs
f = codecs.open("test", "r", "utf-8")</code>

Mixing read() and readline() with codecs

Mixing read() and readline() when using codecs can cause problems. It's better to use readlines(), which returns a list of Unicode strings, avoiding encoding issues.

Conclusion

To read and write Unicode text files effectively in Python, specify the encoding when opening the files using io.open or codecs.open. This ensures that Unicode characters are correctly handled and represented as expected.

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