Error Illegal Character 582 (0x246): How to Fix it
To fix this, adjust the code so it can recognize and handle this error properly
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ERROR_ILLEGAL_CHARACTER usually appears during app development, and it might prevent your application from working properly. However, there are ways to fix this issue, and today we’re going to show you how to do it.
How can I fix ERROR_ILLEGAL_CHARACTER?
1. Detect the problematic character
- Open your code.
- Adjust it so it can detect non-standard characters:
for char in text:
   if ord(char) > 0x10FFFF: # Unicode max range
       print(f"Illegal character found: {repr(char)}") - Save changes.
This code will find the unsupported characters, but won’t handle them.
2. Verify the encoding
- Ensure that the data source is using a standard encoding such as UTF-8.Do the same for the system or application that is handling the file.
- Next, open your code and specify the encoding like this:
with open("file.txt", "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
   content = f.read() - Save changes.
3. Sanitize the input data
- Open your code.
- You can replace invalid characters with placeholders:
sanitized_text = text.encode('utf-8', errors='replace').decode('utf-8')
- Alternatively, you can remove illegal characters:
cleaned_text = ''.join(c for c in text if c.isprintable())
4. Handle errors properly
- Open your code.
- Next, adjust it like this:
try:
   process_data(input_text)
 except UnicodeDecodeError:
    print("Illegal Unicode character encountered.") - Save changes.
5. Other tips to try
- Ensure that file paths don’t contain any illegal characters.
- When working with XML or HTML, use character escaping to sanitize the content.
- Ensure that the application, system, and libraries are up to date.
- Check the data source for corruption.
ERROR_ILLEGAL_CHARACTER is a minor error, but it can cause a lot of inconvenience, so it’s necessary for you to adjust your code to handle it.
We covered similar errors in our Error Undefined Character and Error Label Too Long articles, so we encourage you to check them out.
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