Why do I receive an error about "undefined symbol: PyUnicodeU​CS4_Decode​UTF16" when importing MATLAB engine module in Python 2.7 on Linux?

I can input "import matlab" successfully, but when I input "import matlab.engine", the terminal will print "

ERROR: Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in module File "/home/usr/Documents/Python/matlab_engines_install/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matlab/engine/__init__.py", line 62, in module 'MathWorks Technical Support for assistance: %s' % e) EnvironmentError: Please reinstall MATLAB Engine for Python or contact MathWorks Technical Support for assistance: /cad/adi/apps/mathworks/matlab/2017b/extern/engines/python/dist/matlab/engine/glnxa64/matlabengineforpython2_7.so: undefined symbol: PyUnicodeUCS4_DecodeUTF16".

The version of matlab & python is matlab 2017b and Python 2.7.9, both are 64 bit, but sys.maxunicode is narrow.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The build of this Python distribution uses narrow Unicode while Python Engine is built to support wide Unicode: 

"To enable wide-unicode support for Python 2.7 on Linux, configure the build with the --enable-unicode=ucs4 option."

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_external/install-the-matlab-engine-for-python.html