How to convert a file to utf-8 in Python?

Solution 1:

You can use the codecs module, like this:

import codecs
BLOCKSIZE = 1048576 # or some other, desired size in bytes
with codecs.open(sourceFileName, "r", "your-source-encoding") as sourceFile:
    with codecs.open(targetFileName, "w", "utf-8") as targetFile:
        while True:
            contents = sourceFile.read(BLOCKSIZE)
            if not contents:
                break
            targetFile.write(contents)

EDIT: added BLOCKSIZE parameter to control file chunk size.

Solution 2:

This worked for me in a small test:

sourceEncoding = "iso-8859-1"
targetEncoding = "utf-8"
source = open("source")
target = open("target", "w")

target.write(unicode(source.read(), sourceEncoding).encode(targetEncoding))

Solution 3:

Thanks for the replies, it works!

And since the source files are in mixed formats, I added a list of source formats to be tried in sequence (sourceFormats), and on UnicodeDecodeError I try the next format:

from __future__ import with_statement

import os
import sys
import codecs
from chardet.universaldetector import UniversalDetector

targetFormat = 'utf-8'
outputDir = 'converted'
detector = UniversalDetector()

def get_encoding_type(current_file):
    detector.reset()
    for line in file(current_file):
        detector.feed(line)
        if detector.done: break
    detector.close()
    return detector.result['encoding']

def convertFileBestGuess(filename):
   sourceFormats = ['ascii', 'iso-8859-1']
   for format in sourceFormats:
     try:
        with codecs.open(fileName, 'rU', format) as sourceFile:
            writeConversion(sourceFile)
            print('Done.')
            return
      except UnicodeDecodeError:
        pass

def convertFileWithDetection(fileName):
    print("Converting '" + fileName + "'...")
    format=get_encoding_type(fileName)
    try:
        with codecs.open(fileName, 'rU', format) as sourceFile:
            writeConversion(sourceFile)
            print('Done.')
            return
    except UnicodeDecodeError:
        pass

    print("Error: failed to convert '" + fileName + "'.")


def writeConversion(file):
    with codecs.open(outputDir + '/' + fileName, 'w', targetFormat) as targetFile:
        for line in file:
            targetFile.write(line)

# Off topic: get the file list and call convertFile on each file
# ...

(EDIT by Rudro Badhon: this incorporates the original try multiple formats until you don't get an exception as well as an alternate approach that uses chardet.universaldetector)

Solution 4:

Answer for unknown source encoding type

based on @Sébastien RoccaSerra

python3.6

import os    
from chardet import detect

# get file encoding type
def get_encoding_type(file):
    with open(file, 'rb') as f:
        rawdata = f.read()
    return detect(rawdata)['encoding']

from_codec = get_encoding_type(srcfile)

# add try: except block for reliability
try: 
    with open(srcfile, 'r', encoding=from_codec) as f, open(trgfile, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as e:
        text = f.read() # for small files, for big use chunks
        e.write(text)

    os.remove(srcfile) # remove old encoding file
    os.rename(trgfile, srcfile) # rename new encoding
except UnicodeDecodeError:
    print('Decode Error')
except UnicodeEncodeError:
    print('Encode Error')

Solution 5:

This is a Python3 function for converting any text file into the one with UTF-8 encoding. (without using unnecessary packages)

def correctSubtitleEncoding(filename, newFilename, encoding_from, encoding_to='UTF-8'):
    with open(filename, 'r', encoding=encoding_from) as fr:
        with open(newFilename, 'w', encoding=encoding_to) as fw:
            for line in fr:
                fw.write(line[:-1]+'\r\n')

You can use it easily in a loop to convert a list of files.