Unicode字符U+FEFF是字节顺序标记或BOM，用于区分大端和小端UTF-16编码之间的区别。如果您使用正确的编解码器解码网页，Python将为您删除它。例子:

#!python2
#coding: utf8
u = u'ABC'
e8 = u.encode('utf-8')        # encode without BOM
e8s = u.encode('utf-8-sig')   # encode with BOM
e16 = u.encode('utf-16')      # encode with BOM
e16le = u.encode('utf-16le')  # encode without BOM
e16be = u.encode('utf-16be')  # encode without BOM
print 'utf-8     %r' % e8
print 'utf-8-sig %r' % e8s
print 'utf-16    %r' % e16
print 'utf-16le  %r' % e16le
print 'utf-16be  %r' % e16be
print
print 'utf-8  w/ BOM decoded with utf-8     %r' % e8s.decode('utf-8')
print 'utf-8  w/ BOM decoded with utf-8-sig %r' % e8s.decode('utf-8-sig')
print 'utf-16 w/ BOM decoded with utf-16    %r' % e16.decode('utf-16')
print 'utf-16 w/ BOM decoded with utf-16le  %r' % e16.decode('utf-16le')

注意，EF BB BF是一个utf -8编码的BOM。对于UTF-8，它不是必需的，但仅作为签名(通常在Windows上)。

输出:

utf-8     'ABC'
utf-8-sig '\xef\xbb\xbfABC'
utf-16    '\xff\xfeA\x00B\x00C\x00'    # Adds BOM and encodes using native processor endian-ness.
utf-16le  'A\x00B\x00C\x00'
utf-16be  '\x00A\x00B\x00C'

utf-8  w/ BOM decoded with utf-8     u'\ufeffABC'    # doesn't remove BOM if present.
utf-8  w/ BOM decoded with utf-8-sig u'ABC'          # removes BOM if present.
utf-16 w/ BOM decoded with utf-16    u'ABC'          # *requires* BOM to be present.
utf-16 w/ BOM decoded with utf-16le  u'\ufeffABC'    # doesn't remove BOM if present.

请注意，utf-16编解码器要求出现BOM，否则Python将不知道数据是大端序还是小端序。

这个字符就是BOM或“字节顺序标记”。它通常作为文件的前几个字节接收，告诉您如何解释其余数据的编码。您可以简单地删除字符继续。不过，由于错误提示您正在尝试转换为'ascii'，您可能应该为您正在尝试做的任何事情选择另一种编码。

您抓取的内容是用unicode而不是ascii文本编码的，因此您得到的字符不能转换为ascii。正确的“翻译”取决于原始网页认为它是什么。Python的unicode页面提供了它如何工作的背景。

您是试图打印结果还是将其粘贴到文件中?该错误表明正在写入导致问题的数据，而不是读取数据。这个问题是寻找解决方法的好地方。

以下是基于Mark Tolonen的回答。字符串包含单词“test”的不同语言，用“|”分隔，所以你可以看到区别。

u = u'ABCtestβ貝塔위másbêta|test|اختبار|测试|測試|テスト|परीक्षा|പരിശോധന|פּרובירן|kiểm tra|Ölçek|'
e8 = u.encode('utf-8')        # encode without BOM
e8s = u.encode('utf-8-sig')   # encode with BOM
e16 = u.encode('utf-16')      # encode with BOM
e16le = u.encode('utf-16le')  # encode without BOM
e16be = u.encode('utf-16be')  # encode without BOM
print('utf-8     %r' % e8)
print('utf-8-sig %r' % e8s)
print('utf-16    %r' % e16)
print('utf-16le  %r' % e16le)
print('utf-16be  %r' % e16be)
print()
print('utf-8  w/ BOM decoded with utf-8     %r' % e8s.decode('utf-8'))
print('utf-8  w/ BOM decoded with utf-8-sig %r' % e8s.decode('utf-8-sig'))
print('utf-16 w/ BOM decoded with utf-16    %r' % e16.decode('utf-16'))
print('utf-16 w/ BOM decoded with utf-16le  %r' % e16.decode('utf-16le'))

下面是一个测试:

>>> u = u'ABCtestβ貝塔위másbêta|test|اختبار|测试|測試|テスト|परीक्षा|പരിശോധന|פּרובירן|kiểm tra|Ölçek|'
>>> e8 = u.encode('utf-8')        # encode without BOM
>>> e8s = u.encode('utf-8-sig')   # encode with BOM
>>> e16 = u.encode('utf-16')      # encode with BOM
>>> e16le = u.encode('utf-16le')  # encode without BOM
>>> e16be = u.encode('utf-16be')  # encode without BOM
>>> print('utf-8     %r' % e8)
utf-8     b'ABCtest\xce\xb2\xe8\xb2\x9d\xe5\xa1\x94\xec\x9c\x84m\xc3\xa1sb\xc3\xaata|test|\xd8\xa7\xd8\xae\xd8\xaa\xd8\xa8\xd8\xa7\xd8\xb1|\xe6\xb5\x8b\xe8\xaf\x95|\xe6\xb8\xac\xe8\xa9\xa6|\xe3\x83\x86\xe3\x82\xb9\xe3\x83\x88|\xe0\xa4\xaa\xe0\xa4\xb0\xe0\xa5\x80\xe0\xa4\x95\xe0\xa5\x8d\xe0\xa4\xb7\xe0\xa4\xbe|\xe0\xb4\xaa\xe0\xb4\xb0\xe0\xb4\xbf\xe0\xb4\xb6\xe0\xb5\x8b\xe0\xb4\xa7\xe0\xb4\xa8|\xd7\xa4\xd6\xbc\xd7\xa8\xd7\x95\xd7\x91\xd7\x99\xd7\xa8\xd7\x9f|ki\xe1\xbb\x83m tra|\xc3\x96l\xc3\xa7ek|'
>>> print('utf-8-sig %r' % e8s)
utf-8-sig b'\xef\xbb\xbfABCtest\xce\xb2\xe8\xb2\x9d\xe5\xa1\x94\xec\x9c\x84m\xc3\xa1sb\xc3\xaata|test|\xd8\xa7\xd8\xae\xd8\xaa\xd8\xa8\xd8\xa7\xd8\xb1|\xe6\xb5\x8b\xe8\xaf\x95|\xe6\xb8\xac\xe8\xa9\xa6|\xe3\x83\x86\xe3\x82\xb9\xe3\x83\x88|\xe0\xa4\xaa\xe0\xa4\xb0\xe0\xa5\x80\xe0\xa4\x95\xe0\xa5\x8d\xe0\xa4\xb7\xe0\xa4\xbe|\xe0\xb4\xaa\xe0\xb4\xb0\xe0\xb4\xbf\xe0\xb4\xb6\xe0\xb5\x8b\xe0\xb4\xa7\xe0\xb4\xa8|\xd7\xa4\xd6\xbc\xd7\xa8\xd7\x95\xd7\x91\xd7\x99\xd7\xa8\xd7\x9f|ki\xe1\xbb\x83m tra|\xc3\x96l\xc3\xa7ek|'
>>> print('utf-16    %r' % e16)
utf-16    b"\xff\xfeA\x00B\x00C\x00t\x00e\x00s\x00t\x00\xb2\x03\x9d\x8cTX\x04\xc7m\x00\xe1\x00s\x00b\x00\xea\x00t\x00a\x00|\x00t\x00e\x00s\x00t\x00|\x00'\x06.\x06*\x06(\x06'\x061\x06|\x00Km\xd5\x8b|\x00,nf\x8a|\x00\xc60\xb90\xc80|\x00*\t0\t@\t\x15\tM\t7\t>\t|\x00*\r0\r?\r6\rK\r'\r(\r|\x00\xe4\x05\xbc\x05\xe8\x05\xd5\x05\xd1\x05\xd9\x05\xe8\x05\xdf\x05|\x00k\x00i\x00\xc3\x1em\x00 \x00t\x00r\x00a\x00|\x00\xd6\x00l\x00\xe7\x00e\x00k\x00|\x00"
>>> print('utf-16le  %r' % e16le)
utf-16le  b"A\x00B\x00C\x00t\x00e\x00s\x00t\x00\xb2\x03\x9d\x8cTX\x04\xc7m\x00\xe1\x00s\x00b\x00\xea\x00t\x00a\x00|\x00t\x00e\x00s\x00t\x00|\x00'\x06.\x06*\x06(\x06'\x061\x06|\x00Km\xd5\x8b|\x00,nf\x8a|\x00\xc60\xb90\xc80|\x00*\t0\t@\t\x15\tM\t7\t>\t|\x00*\r0\r?\r6\rK\r'\r(\r|\x00\xe4\x05\xbc\x05\xe8\x05\xd5\x05\xd1\x05\xd9\x05\xe8\x05\xdf\x05|\x00k\x00i\x00\xc3\x1em\x00 \x00t\x00r\x00a\x00|\x00\xd6\x00l\x00\xe7\x00e\x00k\x00|\x00"
>>> print('utf-16be  %r' % e16be)
utf-16be  b"\x00A\x00B\x00C\x00t\x00e\x00s\x00t\x03\xb2\x8c\x9dXT\xc7\x04\x00m\x00\xe1\x00s\x00b\x00\xea\x00t\x00a\x00|\x00t\x00e\x00s\x00t\x00|\x06'\x06.\x06*\x06(\x06'\x061\x00|mK\x8b\xd5\x00|n,\x8af\x00|0\xc60\xb90\xc8\x00|\t*\t0\t@\t\x15\tM\t7\t>\x00|\r*\r0\r?\r6\rK\r'\r(\x00|\x05\xe4\x05\xbc\x05\xe8\x05\xd5\x05\xd1\x05\xd9\x05\xe8\x05\xdf\x00|\x00k\x00i\x1e\xc3\x00m\x00 \x00t\x00r\x00a\x00|\x00\xd6\x00l\x00\xe7\x00e\x00k\x00|"
>>> print()

>>> print('utf-8  w/ BOM decoded with utf-8     %r' % e8s.decode('utf-8'))
utf-8  w/ BOM decoded with utf-8     '\ufeffABCtestβ貝塔위másbêta|test|اختبار|测试|測試|テスト|परीक्षा|പരിശോധന|פּרובירן|kiểm tra|Ölçek|'
>>> print('utf-8  w/ BOM decoded with utf-8-sig %r' % e8s.decode('utf-8-sig'))
utf-8  w/ BOM decoded with utf-8-sig 'ABCtestβ貝塔위másbêta|test|اختبار|测试|測試|テスト|परीक्षा|പരിശോധന|פּרובירן|kiểm tra|Ölçek|'
>>> print('utf-16 w/ BOM decoded with utf-16    %r' % e16.decode('utf-16'))
utf-16 w/ BOM decoded with utf-16    'ABCtestβ貝塔위másbêta|test|اختبار|测试|測試|テスト|परीक्षा|പരിശോധന|פּרובירן|kiểm tra|Ölçek|'
>>> print('utf-16 w/ BOM decoded with utf-16le  %r' % e16.decode('utf-16le'))
utf-16 w/ BOM decoded with utf-16le  '\ufeffABCtestβ貝塔위másbêta|test|اختبار|测试|測試|テスト|परीक्षा|പരിശോധന|פּרובירן|kiểm tra|Ölçek|'

值得注意的是，只有utf-8-sig和utf-16在编码和解码之后才能返回原始字符串。

我在Python 3上遇到了这个问题，并找到了这个问题(和解决方案)。 当打开一个文件时，Python 3支持encoding关键字来自动处理编码。

如果没有它，BOM将包含在读取结果中:

>>> f = open('file', mode='r')
>>> f.read()
'\ufefftest'

给出正确的编码，结果中省略BOM:

>>> f = open('file', mode='r', encoding='utf-8-sig')
>>> f.read()
'test'

这只是我的个人意见。

This problem arise basically when you save your python code in a UTF-8 or UTF-16 encoding because python add some special character at the beginning of the code automatically (which is not shown by the text editors) to identify the encoding format. But, when you try to execute the code it gives you the syntax error in line 1 i.e, start of code because python compiler understands ASCII encoding. when you view the code of file using read() function you can see at the begin of the returned code '\ufeff' is shown. The one simplest solution to this problem is just by changing the encoding back to ASCII encoding(for this you can copy your code to a notepad and save it Remember! choose the ASCII encoding... Hope this will help.