How to write a check in python to see if file is valid UTF-8?

Question

As stated in title, I would like to check in given file object (opened as binary stream) is valid UTF-8 file.

Anyone?

Thanks

Answer 1

You could do something like

import codecs
try:
    f = codecs.open(filename, encoding='utf-8', errors='strict')
    for line in f:
        pass
    print "Valid utf-8"
except UnicodeDecodeError:
    print "invalid utf-8"

Answer 2

def try_utf8(data):
    "Returns a Unicode object on success, or None on failure"
    try:
       return data.decode('utf-8')
    except UnicodeDecodeError:
       return None

data = f.read()
udata = try_utf8(data)
if udata is None:
    # Not UTF-8.  Do something else
else:
    # Handle unicode data