How to fix "invalid byte sequence in UTF-8" errors when uploading data to ActionNetwork.org

Fix_Invalid_Byte_Sequences_in_UTF8_in_one_col_csv

outty_boy = File.open("output.csv", "w")

File.open("#{ARGV[0]}").each do |row|
    row.encode!("UTF-8", row.encoding, undef: :replace, invalid: :replace, replace: "")
    outty_boy << row
end

outty_boy.close

Sometimes when you're loading email data to ActionNetwork.org the data you're using has invalid utf-8 characters for whatever reason. This ruby script will clean up single column csv files of any nuisance data and will allow you to successfully upload.

Haven't adapted to multiple column data, but use of the CSV standard library would likely take care of the heavy lifting.