How to write strings in Unicode to a text file in Python?

Asked Sep 29 '20 at 14:06

Active Sep 29 '20 at 15:56

Viewed 54 times

I was trying to write a translate function that could automatically convert some text file in English into Chinese. There is a dictionary saved and the key values are in Chinese characters. However, an error occurred when Python was trying to write to a new text file because it couldn't write in unicode.

Here is my function:

def translateDesc(fileName):
    # Opens the file that we're trying to translate
    textFile = open(fileName, "r")
    print(textFile)
    fileLines = textFile.readlines()
    textFile.close()

    # Creates an output list and translate line by line
    outputList = []
    for line in fileLines:
        outputList.append(translateLines(line)) #outputList now contains some string in Chinese

    # Creates an output file and writes in it
    outputFile = open("output.txt", "w+")
    outputFile.writelines(outputList)        # THE ERROR OCCURRED HERE
    outputFile.close()

Here is the error message:

UnicodeEncodeError: 'charmap' codec can't encode characters in position 0-6: character maps to <undefined>

How could I allow Python to write Unicode in a text file?

edited Sep 29 '20 at 15:56

asked Sep 29 '20 at 14:06

abooli

4

Does this answer your question? [Unicode (UTF-8) reading and writing to files in Python](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/491921/unicode-utf-8-reading-and-writing-to-files-in-python) – clubby789 Sep 29 '20 at 14:08
You just have to use `.encode("utf8")` – Anurag Reddy Sep 29 '20 at 14:08
1

Please, provide the error message too – Kolay.Ne Sep 29 '20 at 14:19

How to write strings in Unicode to a text file in Python?

0 Answers0