How to Fix the Pandas UnicodeDecodeError utf8 codec cant decode bytes in position 01 invalid continuation byte Error

How to Fix the Pandas UnicodeDecodeError utf8 codec cant decode bytes in position 01 invalid continuation byte Error

As a data scientist or software engineer, you’re likely familiar with Pandas, a popular Python library for data manipulation and analysis. However, if you’ve ever encountered the UnicodeDecodeError: ‘utf-8’ codec can’t decode bytes in position 0-1: invalid continuation byte error while using Pandas, you know how frustrating it can be. In this article, we’ll explain what the error means and how to fix it.

What is the UnicodeDecodeError: ‘utf-8’ codec can’t decode bytes in position 0-1: invalid continuation byte error?

The UnicodeDecodeError: ‘utf-8’ codec can’t decode bytes in position 0-1: invalid continuation byte error is a common error that occurs when trying to read a file with Pandas that contains non-UTF-8 encoded characters. UTF-8 is a character encoding standard that’s widely used for text files, but it’s not the only encoding format out there. If you try to read a file with a different encoding format, you may encounter this error.

How to fix the UnicodeDecodeError: ‘utf-8’ codec can’t decode bytes in position 0-1: invalid continuation byte error

There are several ways to fix the UnicodeDecodeError: ‘utf-8’ codec can’t decode bytes in position 0-1: invalid continuation byte error. Here are a few solutions:

Solution 1: Specify the encoding format

The most straightforward solution is to specify the encoding format when you read the file. For example, if your file is encoded in ISO-8859-1, you can read it with the following code:

import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv('file.csv', encoding='ISO-8859-1')

If you’re not sure what encoding format your file is in, you can try opening it with a text editor like Notepad++ and checking the encoding format in the “Encoding” menu.

Solution 2: Use the chardet library

If you’re not sure what encoding format your file is in, you can use the chardet library to automatically detect the encoding format. Here’s an example:

import pandas as pd
import chardet

with open('file.csv', 'rb') as f:
    result = chardet.detect(f.read())

df = pd.read_csv('file.csv', encoding=result['encoding'])

The chardet library reads the file in binary mode and tries to detect the encoding format based on the byte sequence in the file. Once it detects the encoding format, it passes it to the encoding parameter in the pd.read_csv() function.

Solution 3: Use the codecs library

Another solution is to use the codecs library to open the file with the correct encoding format and then read it with Pandas. Here’s an example:

import pandas as pd
import codecs

with codecs.open('file.csv', 'r', encoding='ISO-8859-1') as f:
    df = pd.read_csv(f)

The codecs library provides a way to open the file with the correct encoding format and then read it with Pandas.

Conclusion

In this article, we explained what the UnicodeDecodeError: ‘utf-8’ codec can’t decode bytes in position 0-1: invalid continuation byte error means and how to fix it. By specifying the encoding format, using the chardet library, or using the codecs library, you can read files with non-UTF-8 encoded characters in Pandas without encountering this error. With these solutions, you can continue to manipulate and analyze your data with ease.

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