.. _invalid-unicode-codec:

invalid-unicode-codec / E2501
=============================

**Message emitted:**

``UTF-16 and UTF-32 aren't backward compatible. Use UTF-8 instead``

**Description:**

*For compatibility use UTF-8 instead of UTF-16/UTF-32. See also https://bugs.python.org/issue1503789 for a history of this issue. And https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/102205/ for some possible problems when using UTF-16 for instance.*




**Additional details:**

This message is a placeholder for a potential future issue with unicode codecs.



Created by the `unicode_checker <https://github.com/pylint-dev/pylint/blob/main/pylint/checkers/unicode.py>`__ checker.