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

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Question :

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:UsersexpoperialedDesktopPython')
SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated UXXXXXXXX escape
Asked By: inspired

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Answer #1:

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

r'C:UsersexpoperialedDesktopPython'
'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.

Answered By: Martijn Pieters

Answer #2:

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

Answered By: pope

Answer #3:

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:

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