Working with UTF-8 encoding in Python source [duplicate]

Answer 1

In the source header you can declare:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
....

It is described in the PEP 0263:

Then you can use UTF-8 in strings:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

u = 'idzie wąż wąską dróżką'
uu = u.decode('utf8')
s = uu.encode('cp1250')
print(s)

This declaration is not needed in Python 3 as UTF-8 is the default source encoding (see PEP 3120).

In addition, it may be worth verifying that your text editor properly encodes your code in UTF-8. Otherwise, you may have invisible characters that are not interpreted as UTF-8.

Answer 2

Do not forget to verify if your text editor encodes properly your code in UTF-8.

Otherwise, you may have invisible characters that are not interpreted as UTF-8.