Have you tried using str.splitlines() method?:
From the docs:
Return a list of the lines in the string, breaking at line boundaries. Line breaks are not included in the resulting list unless
keependsis given and true.
For example:
>>> 'Line 1\n\nLine 3\rLine 4\r\n'.splitlines()
['Line 1', '', 'Line 3', 'Line 4']
>>> 'Line 1\n\nLine 3\rLine 4\r\n'.splitlines(True)
['Line 1\n', '\n', 'Line 3\r', 'Line 4\r\n']
This method uses the universal newlines approach to splitting lines.
The main difference between Python 2.X and Python 3.X is that the former uses the universal newlines approach to splitting lines, so "\r", "\n", and "\r\n" are considered line boundaries for 8-bit strings, while the latter uses a superset of it that also includes:
\v or \x0b: Line Tabulation (added in Python 3.2).\f or \x0c: Form Feed (added in Python 3.2).\x1c: File Separator.\x1d: Group Separator.\x1e: Record Separator.\x85: Next Line (C1 Control Code).\u2028: Line Separator.\u2029: Paragraph Separator.Unlike
str.split()when a delimiter string sep is given, this method returns an empty list for the empty string, and a terminal line break does not result in an extra line:
>>> ''.splitlines()
[]
>>> 'Line 1\n'.splitlines()
['Line 1']
While str.split('\n') returns:
>>> ''.split('\n')
['']
>>> 'Line 1\n'.split('\n')
['Line 1', '']
If you also need to remove additional leading or trailing whitespace, like spaces, that are ignored by str.splitlines(), you could use str.splitlines() together with str.strip():
>>> [str.strip() for str in 'Line 1 \n \nLine 3 \rLine 4 \r\n'.splitlines()]
['Line 1', '', 'Line 3', 'Line 4']
Lastly, if you want to filter out the empty strings from the resulting list, you could use filter():
>>> # Python 2.X:
>>> filter(bool, 'Line 1\n\nLine 3\rLine 4\r\n'.splitlines())
['Line 1', 'Line 3', 'Line 4']
>>> # Python 3.X:
>>> list(filter(bool, 'Line 1\n\nLine 3\rLine 4\r\n'.splitlines()))
['Line 1', 'Line 3', 'Line 4']
As the error you posted indicates and Burhan suggested, the problem is from the print. There's a related question about that could be useful to you: UnicodeEncodeError: 'charmap' codec can't encode - character maps to <undefined>, print function