Codec Cant Decode Bytes in Position 33213322 Invalid Continuation Byte

If you are getting trouble with the error "Unicodedecodeerror: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xa5 in position 0: invalid start byte", take it easy and follow our article to overcome the problem. Read on it now.

• Reason for "Unicodedecodeerror: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xa5 in position 0: invalid start byte" error
• Solutions to solve this problem
  • Solution for reading csv file:
  • Solution for reading text and json file:
  • Open file and read with binary mode
  • Ignoring errors when reading file
• Summary

Reason for "Unicodedecodeerror: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xa5 in position 0: invalid start byte " error

This problem is common when reading a file under CSV format in pandas. It happens because the read_csv() function in pandas uses utf-8 Standard Encodings, which is defaulted in Python, but the file contains some special characters.

Now, we will read a CSV file about the biomedical domain by pandas and how the error happens.

You can download the CVS file here.

Code:

            import pandas as pd data = pd.read_csv("alldata_1_for_kaggle.csv") data.head()          

Result:

          UnicodeDecodeError                        Traceback (most recent call last) <ipython-input-76-0c9089169b2f> in <module>       1 import pandas as pd ----> 2 a = pd.read_csv('/content/drive/MyDrive/LearnShareIT/alldata_1_for_kaggle.csv')   /usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/pandas/_libs/parsers.pyx in pandas._libs.parsers.raise_parser_error()   UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x99 in position 3: invalid start byte                  

Note: You may get the same error with format like that: UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte <<memory address>>  in position <<position>> : invalid start byte error .

Solutions to solve this problem

Solution for reading csv file:

Some common encodings can bypass the codecs lookup machinery to improve performance such as latin1, iso-8859-1, ascii, us-ascii, etc.

You can pass a parameter named "encoding" with a string value which defines the type of encoding to perform the data.

In our example, we use "latin1" to encode the data.

Code:

            import pandas as pd data = pd.read_csv("alldata_1_for_kaggle.csv", encoding = 'latin1') # pass encoding parameter data.head()          

Result:

          Unnamed:    0               0                                                  a 0           0  Thyroid_Cancer  Thyroid surgery in  children in a single insti... 1           1  Thyroid_Cancer  " The adopted strategy was the same as that us... 2           2  Thyroid_Cancer  coronary arterybypass grafting thrombosis ï¬b... 3           3  Thyroid_Cancer   Solitary plasmacytoma SP of the skull is an u... 4           4  Thyroid_Cancer   This study aimed to investigate serum matrix ...        

Solution for reading text and json file:

The initial content of json and txt file:

            {"student":[     { "firstName":"™œœ''™™œ""××""™"ˆ'γ°°'ˆ'"œ™"ε""íö", "lastName":"Doe" },     { "firstName":"Anna", "lastName":"Smith" },     { "firstName":"Peter", "lastName":"Jones" }   ] }          

            œMedical Informatics and œHealth Care Sciences          

Open file and read with binary mode

syntax: file_reader = open("path/to/file", "rb") with rb is binary reading mode

Read json file:

            import json   file = open('a.json', 'rb') content = json.load(file)  print(content)          

Result:

          {'student': [{'firstName': "™œ\x9dœ\x9d''™™œ\x9d""××""™"ˆ'γ°°'ˆ'"œ\x9d™"ε""Ã\xadö", 'lastName': 'Doe'}, {'firstName': 'Anna', 'lastName': 'Smith'}, {'firstName': 'Peter', 'lastName': 'Jones'}]}        

Read text file:

            file = open('a.txt', 'rb')  print(file.read())          

Result:

          b'\xc5\x93Medical Informatics\xc2\x9d and \xc5\x93Health Care Sciences'        

Ignoring errors when reading file

Syntax: file = open("path/to/file", "r", errors="ignore" to ignore encoding errors can lead to data loss.

Read json file:

            import json   file = open('a.json', 'r', errors = 'ignore') content = json.load(file) print(content)          

Reuslt:

          {'student': [{'firstName': "â„¢Å"ÂÅ"Â''™™Å"Ââ€â€œÃƒâ€"Ãâ€"â€â€â„¢â€œË†â€™ÃŽÂ³Â°Â°â€™Ë†â€™â€œÅ"™“ε““ÃÂ\xadö", 'lastName': 'Doe'}, {'firstName': 'Anna', 'lastName': 'Smith'}, {'firstName': 'Peter', 'lastName': 'Jones'}]}        

Read txt file:

            file = open('a.txt', 'r',  errors='ignore') print(file.read())          

Result:

          Å"Medical Informatics and Å"Health Care Sciences        

Summary

Unicodedecodeerror: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xa5 in position 0: invalid start byte is a common error when reading files. Through our article, hope you understand the root of the problem and the solution to the problem.

Maybe you are interested:

• UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte
• UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character in position
• AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'iteritems'

Full Name: Huan Nguyen
Name of the university: HUST
Major: IT
Programming Languages: Python, C, C++, Machine Learning/Deep Learning/NLP

plotkinrust1999.blogspot.com

Source: https://learnshareit.com/unicodedecodeerror-utf8-codec-cant-decode-byte-0xa5-in-position-0-invalid-start-byte/

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