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

When you specify a path to the file, and the path contains the characters “\U” or “\u”, you see SyntaxError: (unicode error) ‘unicodeescape’ codec can’t decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape.

In this article, let’s discuss what causes this error and different ways to fix it.

What causes the SyntaxError: (unicode error) ‘unicodeescape’ codec can’t decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape?

We can specify the Unicode characters in Python string using the \u or \U character. For example, when we enter  \u2167, it treats this as a Unicode character and prints the appropriate value.

Python treats the file paths as Strings. When the Python interpreter sees \U in the string, it thinks of it as a Unicode character and tries to decode the characters in the next few positions. The above error is thrown when no match is found.

with open("C:\Users\paian\Downloads\demo.txt") as f:
    contents=f.read()
    print(contents)

Output:

File "C:\Users\paian\PycharmProjects\PythonHowTo\venv\Solutions\unicode_error.py", line 1
with open("C:\Users\paian\Downloads\demo.txt") as f:
^
SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape

Fix 1: Use a raw prefix.

As per Python Reference Manual,

Unless an `r’ or `R’ prefix is present, escape sequences in strings are interpreted according to rules similar to those used by Standard C.

When you specify a path to the file, the path is considered as a string. For the backslashes to be interpreted rightly, use the prefix r or R.

with open(r"C:\Users\paian\Downloads\demo.txt") as f:
contents=f.read()
print(contents)

Output:

This is a demo file

Are you seeing the FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory? Click on the link and learn how to fix it.

Fix 2: Use forward slash

You can use a forward slash, instead of a backward slash.

with open("C:/Users/paian/Downloads/demo.txt") as f:
    contents=f.read()
    print(contents)

Output:

This is a demo file

Fix 3: Use backslash escape character

If the file path contains a backslash, you can use the escape sequence \\.

Refer to the below example.

with open("C:\\Users\\paian\\Downloads\\demo.txt") as f:
    contents=f.read()
    print(contents)

Output:

This is a demo file

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve learned the causes of the SyntaxError: (unicode error) ‘unicodeescape’ codec can’t decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape error. Also, earned that the error can be fixed in the following ways-

• Using prefix r or R.
• Using backslash escape character.
• Using forward slash.

We hope this article has been informative. Thank you for reading.