"Unicode Error "unicodeescape" codec can't decode bytes... Cannot open text files in Python 3

This error occurs when trying to open a file that contains escape characters (such as \) in the file path, and the escape characters are not being properly interpreted by Python. Here's a code snippet that shows how to properly open a file in Python 3, using the open() function and specifying the encoding parameter as unicode_escape:

import io

file_path = r"C:\my_folder\my_file.txt"

try:
    with io.open(file_path, "r", encoding="unicode_escape") as f:
        content = f.read()
        print(content)
except IOError:
    print(f"Error opening or reading file: {file_path}")

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This code uses the io.open() function instead of the built-in open() function, which automatically handles encoding issues. The encoding parameter is set to unicode_escape, which tells Python to interpret any escape characters in the file path as actual characters, rather than as special control codes.