Python Source Code Encoding
By default, Python 3 source files are treated as encoded in UTF-8. This allows you to use Unicode characters in string literals, comments, and variable names without any special declarations.
Default Encoding
In Python 3, the default encoding is UTF-8.
# This works by default in Python 3
s = "Hello world 🌍"
print(s)Declaring Encoding
If you need to use a different encoding (e.g., for legacy reasons or specific requirements), you must declare it at the top of the file. This is done using a special comment line.
The syntax is defined in PEP 263. It must match the regular expression coding[:=]\s*([-\w.]+).
Syntax
The encoding declaration must appear on the first or second line of the file.
# -*- coding: encoding_name -*-Or:
# coding=encoding_nameExamples
Using latin-1 (ISO-8859-1):
# -*- coding: latin-1 -*-
currency = "£" # In latin-1, this might be encoded differently than UTF-8Interaction with Shebang
If a script has a shebang line (e.g., #!/usr/bin/env python3), the encoding declaration should go on the second line.
#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
print("Hello")