Reading file to string (python)

Question

I just installed Anaconda to a Windows 10 machine (Python 2.7.12 |Anaconda 4.2.0 (64-bit)|) I am having an issue reading text from a file. Please see code and output below. I want the actual text from the file.

Thanks!!

Output:

 ['\xff\xfeT\x00h\x00i\x00s\x00',
  '\x00i\x00s\x00',
   '\x00a\x00',
   '\x00t\x00e\x00s\x00t\x00.\x00',
   '\x00',
   '\x00',
   '\x00',
   '\x00T\x00h\x00i\x00s\x00',
   '\x00i\x00s\x00',
   '\x00a\x00',
   '\x00t\x00e\x00s\x00t\x00']

Code:

try:    
    with open('test.txt', 'r') as f:        
        text = f.read()
except Exception as e:
    print e
    print text.split()

test.txt:

This is a test.

This is a test

Thanks. The text in the file was using encoding = "Unicode". Changed to "Ansi", and it works fine now. — mfg_2018
– mfg_2018, Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 0:21
If you've gotten an answer that best meets your needs, feel free to mark that answer as accepted. — Ouroborus
– Ouroborus, Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 17:29

miah · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-06 23:57:47Z

2

I've had the best luck with using the io module to open the file with an explicit encoding.

import io
with io.open(FILE, 'r', encoding='utf-16') as f:
    job = f.read()

answered Mar 6, 2017 at 23:57

miah

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Comments

DYZ · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-07 00:11:07Z

0

You have an issue with the text encoding. You file is not encoded in UTF-8, but in UTF-16. Instead of using open, use:

import codecs
with codecs.open("test.txt", "r", encoding="utf-16") as f:
    text = f.read()

Or switch to Python3 that has a much better support for unicode.

answered Mar 7, 2017 at 0:11

DYZ

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