Fix Syntax error “Invalid Character Identifier” in Python Programming

On this page, we are going to fix Syntax error “Invalid Character Identifier” in Python So let’s start.

The invalid character identifier is a type of syntax error that arises when the invalid characters appear in a code. This error may arise when you copy a code from a site, copy a code from a PDF, use alphabets anywhere in code, or type text in different national language codes.

The characters that can cause syntax error: invalid character identifier can be a parenthesis, arithmetic signs, colons, etc. identifier can be any code, function, or variable in a text.

Syntax error “Invalid Character Identifier” in Python

To solve the issue, you should copy the program text by using a buffer as small in amount as possible. The use of a buffer will prevent this syntax error and also improve typing and programming skills.

Like any programming language, some rules should be in mind when you are using identifiers in Python.

• They should contain only numbers (0–9), alphabets (a-z or A-Z), and underscore(_).
• They cannot start with any number.
• The value should not be a keyword.

There are some other things that you have to follow,

• All identifiers except names start with an upper case.
• An identifier starting with an underscore is used to indicate that it is private.
• Identifiers starting with two underscores indicate that it is highly private.

Create your variables using these rules and conventions to avoid the ‘SyntaxError: invalid character in identifier’.

Here are some methods you can use to fix syntax errors: invalid character identifier.

Do Not Use National Alphabets

It is recommended that you should not use national alphabets anywhere other than in the author’s name. Nevertheless, you can use such variable names as the name of a person, and it will not cause an error.

For example

Christian = 5

William = 10

John = 15

print(Christian + William + John)

Output:

30

Do Not Copy And Paste a Python Code

Most often, the error Syntax Error: invalid character in identifier arises when the code is copied from some source already present on the network.

There is a chance for you to get errors like along with the correct characters you can copy formatting characters or other non-printable service characters.

When you copy from different sites, you can copy the wrong character quotation marks or apostrophes which cause errors.

This is one of the reasons why you should never copy-paste the code from any network.

If you are looking for a solution to your question somewhere on the Internet then you should retype it yourself even though taken from the source.

For the programmers who have just started learning Python, it is better to understand the code fully, learn information from it, and rewrite it from memory without the source.

Detect Non-printable Character

Non-printable characters are hidden and we cannot see them but they can cause syntax error: invalid character identifier. We can see all non-printable characters by using special text editors.

For example, Vim is the default view in which we will see every unprintable symbol.

Let’s look at the example of code with an error in it:

a = 3

b = 1

c = a — b

File "", line 1
c = a — b
      ^

Syntax Error: invalid character in an identifier.

In this case, there are more than five types of dashes and various types of minus signs in this code that are causing the error. We can remove it by limiting the use of signs. Another symbol worth noting is the use of brackets.

Here the top three are correct, while the bottom one is not correct.

tpl = (1, 2, 3)

lst = [1, 2, 3]

set = {1, 2, 3}

tpl = ⟮1, 2, 3⟯

Read more: TypeError: Must be str, not tuple in Python