Python import pandas error

Question

I'm using Python, and just start importing pandas, then the terminal reports failure like this:

import pandas as pd
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/__init__.py", line 44, in <module>
    from pandas.core.api import *
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/core/api.py", line 9, in <module>
    from pandas.core.groupby import Grouper
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/core/groupby.py", line 17, in <module>
    from pandas.core.frame import DataFrame
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/core/frame.py", line 41, in <module>
    from pandas.core.series import Series
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/core/series.py", line 2909, in <module>
    import pandas.tools.plotting as _gfx
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/tools/plotting.py", line 28, in <module>
    import pandas.tseries.converter as conv
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/tseries/converter.py", line 7, in <module>
    import matplotlib.units as units
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 1131, in <module>
    rcParams = rc_params()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 975, in rc_params
    return rc_params_from_file(fname, fail_on_error)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 1100, in rc_params_from_file
    config_from_file = _rc_params_in_file(fname, fail_on_error)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 1018, in _rc_params_in_file
    with _open_file_or_url(fname) as fd:
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.10_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/contextlib.py", line 17, in __enter__
    return self.gen.next()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 1000, in _open_file_or_url
    encoding = locale.getdefaultlocale()[1]
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.10_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/locale.py", line 543, in getdefaultlocale
    return _parse_localename(localename)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.10_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/locale.py", line 475, in _parse_localename
    raise ValueError, 'unknown locale: %s' % localename
ValueError: unknown locale: UTF-8

What's wrong and what should I do, please?

Pedro Silva · Answer 1 · 2016-01-10T21:53:45.357

You have your locale environment set to UTF-8. You most likely want something like en.UTF-8. This is not a problem with Pandas, or Matplotlib, for that matter, but with the locale module's handling of your incorrect environment:

>>> import locale
>>> locale._parse_localename('UTF-8')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-4-9c83313227dd> in <module>()
----> 1 locale._parse_localename('UTF-8')

/home/psilva/.virtualenvs/spark/lib/python2.7/locale.pyc in _parse_localename(localename)
    473     elif code == 'C':
    474         return None, None
--> 475     raise ValueError, 'unknown locale: %s' % localename
    476 
    477 def _build_localename(localetuple):

ValueError: unknown locale: UTF-8

>>> locale._parse_localename('en.UTF-8')
('en_US', 'UTF-8')

Setting one of LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG, or LANGUAGE to something sensible like 'en_US.UTF-8' or 'C' should fix the problem.

Python import pandas error

1 Answers1