[python] Why do I get a SyntaxError for a Unicode escape in my file path?

The folder I want to get to is called python and is on my desktop.

I get the following error when I try to get to it

>>> os.chdir('C:\Users\expoperialed\Desktop\Python')
SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape

You need to use a raw string, double your slashes or use forward slashes instead:

r'C:\Users\expoperialed\Desktop\Python'
'C:\\Users\\expoperialed\\Desktop\\Python'
'C:/Users/expoperialed/Desktop/Python'

In regular python strings, the \U character combination signals a extended Unicode codepoint escape.

You can hit any number of other issues, for any of the recognised escape sequences, such as \a or \t or \x, etc.

I had the same error. Basically, I suspect that the path cannot start either with "U" or "User" after "C:\". I changed my directory to "c:\file_name.png" by putting the file that I want to access from python right under the 'c:\' path.

In your case, if you have to access the "python" folder, perhaps reinstall the python, and change the installation path to something like "c:\python". Otherwise, just avoid the "...\User..." in your path, and put your project under C:.

f = open('C:\\Users\\Pooja\\Desktop\\trolldata.csv')

Use '\\' for python program in Python version 3 and above.. Error will be resolved..

All the three syntax work very well.

Another way is to first write

path = r'C:\user\...................' (whatever is the path for you)

and then passing it to os.chdir(path)

C:\\Users\\expoperialed\\Desktop\\Python This syntax worked for me.

This usually happens in Python 3. One of the common reasons would be that while specifying your file path you need "\\" instead of "\". As in:

filePath = "C:\\User\\Desktop\\myFile"

For Python 2, just using "\" would work.

Use this

os.chdir('C:/Users\expoperialed\Desktop\Python')