Non ASCII character error python

Question

I'm a beginner programmer trying to write a python script that will generate random passwords. However, I always get a non-ASCII character error even though I declared the coding #utf-8, as mentioned in another similar question here in Stack Overflow. This is the source code:

import string
import random
#coding: utf-8
print "Password generator will create a random customizable password."
print "Choose your options wisely."
number = int(input("How many letters do you want in your password?"))
caps = str(input("Do you want capital letters in your password? Y/N"))
symbols = str(input( "Do you want punctuation, numbers and other symbols in your password? Y/N"))
punctuation = ("!", ".", ":", ";", ",", "?", "'", "@", "£", "$", "«", "»", "~", "^","%", "#", "&", "/", range(0, 11))
lowercase = string.ascii_lowercase
uppercase = string.ascii_uppercase
if caps == "N":
    characters = lowercase
else:
    characters = uppercase + lowercase
if symbols == "Y":
    characters += punctuation
password = random.sample(characters, number)
print "The password is", password "."

This is the terminal output

pedro@pedro-Inspiron-3521:~/Desktop$ python passwordgenerator.py

File "passwordgenerator.py", line 9 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\xc2' in file passwordgenerator.py on line 9, but no encoding declared; see http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0263.html for details

I checked the link but I couldn't understand a thing, maybe because I'm not a native english speaker and since I started programming not long ago.Thanks in advance for your help.

use raw_input() on Python 2.7 instead of input(). The latter evals its input i.e., it works like eval(raw_input()). — jfs
– jfs, Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 19:36

agf · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-11 19:32:06Z

5

The #coding: utf-8 line needs to be at the top of the file to allow non-ASCII characters.

£, «, and », are not ASCII.

While you probably don't want non-ascii characters in your password, and they wouldn't be allowed on most sites, there is no reason they couldn't theoretically be permitted.

answered Oct 11, 2014 at 19:32

agf

178k45 gold badges300 silver badges241 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

DevLounge · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-11 19:04:58Z

2

You have the >> and << symbols in your punctuations list.

These are not valid. Try to find their unicode code instead

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/bb/index.htm http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/ab/index.htm

EDIT: Oh, but wait, this is a password generator, so NO do not even put the double chevrons as part of the punctuations list, as these are not valid in any password.

punctuation = ("!", ".", ":", ";", ",", "?", "'", "@", "$", "~", "^", "%", "#", "&", "/", range(0, 11))

Also, why do you add digits to the punctuation tuple?

Why not using string.punctuation and string.digits instead?

edited Oct 11, 2014 at 19:04

answered Oct 11, 2014 at 18:40

DevLounge

8,4633 gold badges33 silver badges44 bronze badges

14 Comments

chilliefiber Over a year ago

So in the links you gave me it says that « in python source code is u"\u00AB"and » is u"\u00BB". Should I include this inside "" or not?

chilliefiber Over a year ago

I deleted them, but it's still not working. I get the same mistake

chilliefiber Over a year ago

Here is the punctuation variable that I currently have: punctuation = ("!", ".", ":", ";", ",", "?", "'", "@", "£", "$", "~", "^","%", "#", "&", "/", range(0, 11))

chilliefiber Over a year ago

To answer your question, I have no idea what a digit is, or what string.punctuation and string.digits would do. However, I'll surely search it. Thanks, kind stranger

chilliefiber Over a year ago

Sorry @agf and Apero , can't upvote any of your answers, tried to and it says Vote up requires 15 reputation :(

|

Alfergon · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-18 10:42:22Z

0

If your are using Mac, there is file .DS_STORE which causes the ascii error while reading contents of your folder.

So do these if you're using mac

Remove all DS_Store files
Select Applications > Utilities to launch Terminal.
Enter the following UNIX command:
sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \;
When prompted for a password enter your Mac OS X Administrator password

edited Feb 18, 2015 at 10:42

Alfergon

5,9677 gold badges39 silver badges58 bronze badges

answered Feb 18, 2015 at 10:12

Deepak

12 bronze badges

1 Comment

David Hoelzer Over a year ago

While this is a good answer and possible, a more likely cause on a Mac is copying from an editor to a terminal which leads to non-Python friendly leading whitespace. Simply replacing the leading whitespace will correct the issue.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Non ASCII character error python

3 Answers 3

Comments

14 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

Comments

14 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related