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<qhelp>

<overview>

<p> Encoding errors prevent a module being evaluated and thus imported.

An attempt to import a module with an invalid encoding will fail; a <code>SyntaxError</code> will be raised.

Note that in Python 2, the default encoding is ASCII.

</p>

<p>The existence of an encoding error in a module may suggest other problems as well.

Either the module is never imported in practice and could be deleted or a

<code>try</code> statement around the import is mistakenly discarding the <code>SyntaxError</code>.

</p>

</overview>

<recommendation>

<p>Fixing the encoding error is the obvious fix.

However, it is worth investigating why a module containing an encoding error

was able to persist and address that problem as well.

</p>

<p>

If a different encoding should be used for the file, specify it explicitly by

putting an encoding specification at the top of the file. For instance, to

specify UTF-8 encoding, add the line <code># coding=utf-8</code>.

</p>

</recommendation>

<references>

<li>Python PEPs: <a href="https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0263/">PEP 263 — Defining Python Source Code Encodings.</a></li>

<li>Python Tutorial: <a href="http://docs.python.org/tutorial/errors.html#syntax-errors">SyntaxErrors.</a></li>

</references>

</qhelp>