Convert any text file into UTF-8 file like object

convert_any_text_file_to_utf8_file_like_object.py

import chardet  # https://pypi.python.org/pypi/chardet

def file_to_utf8(f_name):
    """Convert any file into UTF-8 file like object.
    This conversion method is not perfect, because chardet doesn't detect the char set with 100% accuracy.
    You'd have to base the decision to do the conversion on the confidence level (raging from 0 to 1) returned by the detect()
    
    detect() returns a dictionary containing the auto-detected character encoding and a confidence level from 0 to 1.
    """
    with open(f_name, 'rb') as f:
        data = f.read()
        chardet_res = chardet.detect(data)['encoding']
        if chardet_res != 'UTF-8':
            data = unicode(data, chardet_res).encode('UTF-8')
        return data