Python list items encoding

Question

Why is it, that the encoding changes in Python 2.7 when I iterate over the items of a list?

test_list = ['Hafst\xc3\xa4tter', '[email protected]']

Printing the list:

print(test_list)

gets me this output:

['Hafst\xc3\xa4tter', '[email protected]']

So far, so good. But why is it, that when I iterate over the list, such as:

for item in test_list:
    print(item)

I get this output:

Hafstätter
[email protected]

Why does the encoding change (does it?? And how can I change the encoding within the list?

You see the repr encoding in the list and the str when you print, you don't need to do anything, test_list[0] == "Hafstätter" -> True — Padraic Cunningham
– Padraic Cunningham, Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 15:47
Possible duplicate of Difference between __str__ and __repr__ in Python — khelwood
– khelwood, Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 15:47

Mark Tolonen · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-19 22:36:03Z

1

The encoding isn't changing, they are just different ways of displaying a string. One shows the non-ASCII bytes as escape codes for debugging:

>>> test_list = ['Hafst\xc3\xa4tter', '[email protected]']
>>> print(test_list)
['Hafst\xc3\xa4tter', '[email protected]']
>>> for item in test_list:
...     print(item)
...     
Hafstätter
[email protected]

But they are equivalent:

>>> 'Hafst\xc3\xa4tter' == 'Hafstätter'
True

If you want to see lists displayed with the non-debugging output, you have to generate it yourself:

>>> print("['"+"', '".join(item for item in test_list) + "']")
['Hafstätter', '[email protected]']

There is a reason for the debugging output:

>>> a = 'a\xcc\x88'
>>> b = '\xc3\xa4'
>>> a
'a\xcc\x88'
>>> print a,b   # should look the same, if not it is the browser's fault :)
ä ä
>>> a==b
False
>>> [a,b]      # In a list you can see the difference by default.
['a\xcc\x88', '\xc3\xa4']

edited Apr 19, 2016 at 22:36

answered Apr 19, 2016 at 2:47

Mark Tolonen

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1 Comment

Johannes Schwaninger Over a year ago

I find this topic really hard, so your clarifications are greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

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