Python get character code in different encoding?

Question

Given a character code as integer number in one encoding, how can you get the character code in, say, utf-8 and again as integer?

Answer 1

Here's an example of how the encode/decode dance works:

>>> s = b'd\x06'             # perhaps start with bytes encoded in utf-16
>>> map(ord, s)              # show those bytes as integers
[100, 6]
>>> u = s.decode('utf-16')   # turn the bytes into unicode
>>> print u                  # show what the character looks like
٤
>>> print ord(u)             # show the unicode code point as an integer
1636
>>> t = u.encode('utf-8')    # turn the unicode into bytes with a different encoding
>>> map(ord, t)              # show that encoding as integers
[217, 164]

Hope this helps :-)

If you need to construct the unicode directly from an integer, use unichr:

>>> u = unichr(1636)
>>> print u
٤