“UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character”

Question

I\'m trying to pass big strings of random html through regular expressions and my Python 2.6 script is choking on this:

UnicodeEncodeError: \'ascii\' codec can\'t e

Answer 1

First of all, try installing translations for English language (or any other if needed):

sudo apt-get install language-pack-en

which provides translation data updates for all supported packages (including Python).

And make sure you use the right encoding in your code.

For example:

open(foo, encoding='utf-8')

Then double check your system configuration like value of LANG or configuration of locale (/etc/default/locale) and don't forget to re-login your session.