ascii codec can't encode character u'\xe1' in position 6: ordinal not in range(128)

[ChrisBrannin__GISP]

I am trying to convert a dbf to a csv but come by this error when I hit certain characters (in this case á I think). I know there are many more.. Is there a way to force this to convert to utf-8? Is this the way to handle this? Any help is greatly appreciated!

import arcpy, os, csv

masterTable = r"M:\Spelling_Project\Master_Table\FeaturesTable.dbf"


CSVFile = r"M:\Spelling_Project\Master_Table\FeaturesTable.csv"
fields = arcpy.ListFields(masterTable)
fieldNames = [field.name for field in fields]


with open(CSVFile,'w') as f:
    dw = csv.DictWriter(f,fieldNames)
    dw.writeheader()


    with arcpy.da.SearchCursor(masterTable,fieldNames) as cursor:
        for row in cursor:
            dw.writerow(dict(zip(fieldNames,row)))
            print row
            print "converted " +  masterTable + " to a CSV file!"
del row, cursor

*EDIT*

For anyone who will find this helpful, this is what I used to solve this.

import arcpy, os, csv, codecs


def Utf8EncodeArray( oldArray ):
    newArray = []
    for element in oldArray:
        if isinstance(element, unicode):
            newArray.append(element.encode("utf-8"))
        else:
            newArray.append(element)
    return newArray


masterTable = r"M:\Spelling_Project\Master_Table\FeaturesTable.dbf"


CSVFile = r"M:\Spelling_Project\Master_Table\FeaturesTable.csv"
fields = arcpy.ListFields(masterTable)
fieldNames = [field.name for field in fields]


with open(CSVFile, 'w') as f:
    dw = csv.DictWriter(f,fieldNames)
    dw.writeheader()


    with arcpy.da.SearchCursor(masterTable,fieldNames) as cursor:
        for row in cursor:
            dw.writerow(dict(zip(fieldNames,Utf8EncodeArray(row))))
        print "converted " +  masterTable + " to a CSV file!"
del row, cursor

Message was edited by: Chris Brannin

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Working with utf-8 encoding in Python source - Stack Overflow

apparently, you have to include

# coding: utf-8

at the top of your script...see documentation for 10.3 as well

Python migration for ArcGIS Pro—ArcPy Get Started | ArcGIS for Professionals

# coding: utf-8
a = u'á trés bonne...those pesky characters'
print a‍‍‍

yields

á trés bonne...those pesky characters‍

or if coding is not visible but the code is

# coding: utf-8
a = u'\xe1'
print a
‍‍‍

output

>>> á
‍