In Python, I have a string like this:
'\\x89\\n' How can I decode it into a normal string like:
'\x89\n' 
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2 Answers
If your input value is a str string, use codecs.decode() to convert:
import codecs codecs.decode(raw_unicode_string, 'unicode_escape') If your input value is a bytes object, you can use the bytes.decode() method:
raw_byte_string.decode('unicode_escape') Demo:
>>> import codecs >>> codecs.decode('\\x89\\n', 'unicode_escape') '\x89\n' >>> b'\\x89\\n'.decode('unicode_escape') '\x89\n' Python 2 byte strings can be decoded with the 'string_escape' codec:
>>> import sys; sys.version_info[:2] (2, 7) >>> '\\x89\\n'.decode('string_escape') '\x89\n' For Unicode literals (with a u prefix, e.g. u'\\x89\\n'), use 'unicode_escape'.
answered Jun 16, 2014 at 11:24
Martijn Pieters
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10 Comments
Bakuriu
This doesn't work in python3. (
str doesn't have a decode method and also string_escape isn't a valid encoding anymore).
Martijn Pieters
@Bakuriu: The OP never specified a Python version.
Vince.Wu
Yeah, you're right, what I was trying to decode is a bytes class object, not a str object!
Martijn Pieters
@user486005: that was crucial information; I had to assume you were using Python 2 (still the more likely option, statistically speaking). I've updated my answer to include the correct methods to use in Python 3.
Vince.Wu
@MartijnPieters I didn't know that python-3 has remove the decode method of string object then, at first I thought it was a string object while it was a bytes object indeed, so it just happens to run successfully. Thanks a lot.
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This would work for Python 3:
b'\\x89\\n'.decode('unicode_escape') 
1 Comment
Ivan Kucerak
@user486005: I am glad it helped. It was meant as addition to the Martinj Python 2 solution.