title: Python UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc3
body: <p>I'm reading a config file in python getting sections and creating new config files for each section.</p>
  
  <p>However.. I'm getting a decode error because one of the strings contains <code>Español=spain</code></p>
  
  <pre><code>self.output_file.write( what.replace( " = ", "=", 1 ) )
  UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 4: ordinal not in range(128)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How would I adjust my code to allow for encoded characters such as these? I'm very new to this so please excuse me if this is something simple..</p>
  
  <pre><code>class EqualsSpaceRemover:
      output_file = None
      def __init__( self, new_output_file ):
          self.output_file = new_output_file
  
      def write( self, what ):
          self.output_file.write( what.replace( " = ", "=", 1 ) )
  
  def get_sections():
      configFilePath = 'C:\\test.ini'
      config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
      config.optionxform = str
      config.read(configFilePath)
      for section in config.sections():
          configdata = {k:v for k,v in config.items(section)}
          confignew = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
          cfgfile = open("C:\\" + section + ".ini", 'w')
          confignew.add_section(section)
          for x in configdata.items():
              confignew.set(section,x[0],x[1])
          confignew.write( EqualsSpaceRemover( cfgfile ) )
          cfgfile.close()
  </code></pre>