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what should i do to fix this error?

f = open('C:\Users\BARANLAPTOP\Desktop\test') #my python code

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

pouyamsadeghi
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  • Why is this tagged both python-3.x and python-2.7? Usually problems about Unicode characters are very different on the two versions, so unless the problem actually happens the same way on both and you need a solution that works on both, you’re just making the question harder to answer and the answer harder to use. (That isn’t true in this particular case, but it usually is.) – abarnert Apr 13 '18 at 15:01

1 Answers1

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This is happening because the backslashes in your file path string our being treated as special characters. To fix this issue you need to let python know they are part of the path you can do this by converting the string into a raw string by putting a r before the start of the string or by escaping the backslashes by putting another backslash before them so all backslashes become double backslashes.

Chris J.
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  • Specifically, the error is because `\U` from `C:\Users` is a unicode escape meaning *"interpret the following number as a unicode character"* – SiHa Apr 13 '18 at 14:58
  • The fix is to either use `r'C:\Users\...'`, or [`pathlib`](https://docs.python.org/3/library/pathlib.html). – 9000 Apr 13 '18 at 16:26