How to convert a string to utf-8 in Python
PythonPython 2.7UnicodeUtf 8Python Problem Overview
I have a browser which sends utf-8 characters to my Python server, but when I retrieve it from the query string, the encoding that Python returns is ASCII. How can I convert the plain string to utf-8?
NOTE: The string passed from the web is already UTF-8 encoded, I just want to make Python to treat it as UTF-8 not ASCII.
Python Solutions
Solution 1 - Python
In Python 2
>>> plain_string = "Hi!"
>>> unicode_string = u"Hi!"
>>> type(plain_string), type(unicode_string)
(<type 'str'>, <type 'unicode'>)
^ This is the difference between a byte string (plain_string) and a unicode string.
>>> s = "Hello!"
>>> u = unicode(s, "utf-8")
^ Converting to unicode and specifying the encoding.
In Python 3
All strings are unicode. The unicode
function does not exist anymore. See answer from @Noumenon
Solution 2 - Python
If the methods above don't work, you can also tell Python to ignore portions of a string that it can't convert to utf-8:
stringnamehere.decode('utf-8', 'ignore')
Solution 3 - Python
Might be a bit overkill, but when I work with ascii and unicode in same files, repeating decode can be a pain, this is what I use:
def make_unicode(inp):
if type(inp) != unicode:
inp = inp.decode('utf-8')
return inp
Solution 4 - Python
Adding the following line to the top of your .py file:
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
allows you to encode strings directly in your script, like this:
utfstr = "ボールト"
Solution 5 - Python
If I understand you correctly, you have a utf-8 encoded byte-string in your code.
Converting a byte-string to a unicode string is known as decoding (unicode -> byte-string is encoding).
You do that by using the unicode function or the decode method. Either:
unicodestr = unicode(bytestr, encoding)
unicodestr = unicode(bytestr, "utf-8")
Or:
unicodestr = bytestr.decode(encoding)
unicodestr = bytestr.decode("utf-8")
Solution 6 - Python
city = 'Ribeir\xc3\xa3o Preto'
print city.decode('cp1252').encode('utf-8')
Solution 7 - Python
In Python 3.6, they do not have a built-in unicode() method. Strings are already stored as unicode by default and no conversion is required. Example:
my_str = "\u221a25"
print(my_str)
>>> √25
Solution 8 - Python
Translate with ord() and unichar(). Every unicode char have a number asociated, something like an index. So Python have a few methods to translate between a char and his number. Downside is a ñ example. Hope it can help.
>>> C = 'ñ'
>>> U = C.decode('utf8')
>>> U
u'\xf1'
>>> ord(U)
241
>>> unichr(241)
u'\xf1'
>>> print unichr(241).encode('utf8')
ñ
Solution 9 - Python
- First,
str
in Python is represented inUnicode
. - Second,
UTF-8
is an encoding standard to encodeUnicode
string tobytes
. There are many encoding standards out there (e.g.UTF-16
,ASCII
,SHIFT-JIS
, etc.).
When the client sends data to your server and they are using UTF-8
, they are sending a bunch of bytes
not str
.
You received a str
because the "library" or "framework" that you are using, has implicitly converted some random bytes
to str
.
Under the hood, there is just a bunch of bytes
. You just need ask the "library" to give you the request content in bytes
and you will handle the decoding yourself (if library can't give you then it is trying to do black magic then you shouldn't use it).
- Decode
UTF-8
encodedbytes
tostr
:bs.decode('utf-8')
- Encode
str
toUTF-8
bytes
:s.encode('utf-8')
Solution 10 - Python
you can also do this:
from unidecode import unidecode
unidecode(yourStringtoDecode)
Solution 11 - Python
You can use python's standard library codecs
module.
import codecs
codecs.decode(b'Decode me', 'utf-8')
Solution 12 - Python
Yes, You can add
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
in your source code's first line.
You can read more details here https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0263/