[FIXED] opening a file with an accented character in its name, in Python 2 on Windows

Issue

In a directory in Windows I have 2 files, both of them with an accented character in its name: t1û.fn and t2ű.fn; The dir command in the Command Prompt shows both correctly:

S:\p>dir t*.fn
 Volume in drive S is q
 Volume Serial Number is 05A0-8823

 Directory of S:\p

2017-09-03  14:54                 4 t1û.fn
2017-09-03  14:54                 4 t2ű.fn
               2 File(s)              8 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  19,110,621,184 bytes free

Screenshot:

However, Python can't see both files:

S:\p>python -c "import os; print [(fn, os.path.isfile(fn)) for fn in os.listdir('.') if fn.endswith('.fn')]"
[('t1\xfb.fn', True), ('t2u.fn', False)]

It looks like Python 2 uses a single-byte API for filenames, thus the accented character in t1û.fn is mapped to the single byte \xfb, and the accented character in t2ű.fn is mapped to the unaccented ASCII single byte u.

How is it possible to use a multi-byte API for filenames on Windows in Python 2? I want to open both files in the console version of Python 2 on Windows.

Solution

Use a unicode string:

f1 = open(u"t1\u00fb.fn")     # t1û.fn
f2 = open(u"t2\u0171.fn")     # t2ű.fn

Answered By - selbie