python - Why do I get a SyntaxError for a Unicode escape in my file path?

Question

The folder I want to get to is called python and is on my desktop.

I get the following error when I try to get to it

>>> os.chdir('C:\Users\expoperialed\Desktop\Python')
SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape

Answer 1

You need to use a raw string, double your slashes or use forward slashes instead:

r'C:\Users\expoperialed\Desktop\Python'
'C:\\Users\\expoperialed\\Desktop\\Python'
'C:/Users/expoperialed/Desktop/Python'

In regular python strings, the \U character combination signals a extended Unicode codepoint escape.

You can hit any number of other issues, for any of the recognised escape sequences, such as \a or \t or \x, etc.

Answer 2

C:\\Users\\expoperialed\\Desktop\\Python This syntax worked for me.

Answer 3

This usually happens in Python 3. One of the common reasons would be that while specifying your file path you need "\\" instead of "\". As in:

filePath = "C:\\User\\Desktop\\myFile"

For Python 2, just using "\" would work.

Answer 4

f = open('C:\\Users\\Pooja\\Desktop\\trolldata.csv')

Use '\\' for python program in Python version 3 and above.. Error will be resolved..

Answer 5

All the three syntax work very well.

Another way is to first write

path = r'C:\user\...................' (whatever is the path for you)

and then passing it to os.chdir(path)

Answer 6

Use this

os.chdir('C:/Users\expoperialed\Desktop\Python')

Answer 7

I had the same error. Basically, I suspect that the path cannot start either with "U" or "User" after "C:\". I changed my directory to "c:\file_name.png" by putting the file that I want to access from python right under the 'c:\' path.

In your case, if you have to access the "python" folder, perhaps reinstall the python, and change the installation path to something like "c:\python". Otherwise, just avoid the "...\User..." in your path, and put your project under C:.