2

I am struggling to write a Python (version 2.7) script which makes use of some unicode properties. The problem arises when I attempt to use embedded locale package. Here is the code snippet that I am having issues with:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import datetime
import os
import locale
locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'greek')
day = datetime.date.today()
dayFull = day.strftime('%A')
myString = u"ΚΑΛΗΜΕΡΑ"
print myString
print dayFull

While dayFull prints the current day name just fine (in greek letters), myString comes out in console as question mark characters. How can I fix it, can someone please point out my mistake here?

P.S. My system is a Windows 7 machine.

Sidharth Shah
  • 1,569
  • 1
  • 11
  • 14
stratis
  • 7,750
  • 13
  • 53
  • 94
  • 1
    Your problem lies with the Windows console and it's inability to deal with Unicode properly. See [Python, Unicode, and the Windows console](http://stackoverflow.com/q/5419). In summary, it's a problem between the Console codepage, the font used to render Unicode glyphs, and Python 2 not recognizing the 65001 (Microsoft's take on UTF-8) codepage. – Martijn Pieters Mar 23 '13 at 17:06
  • @Bakuriu Why did you remove important information from this post? – R. Martinho Fernandes Mar 23 '13 at 18:27
  • On my PC it fails completely with a UnicodeEncodeError. What code page are you using? Type `chcp` at a command prompt to find out. – Mark Ransom Mar 23 '13 at 18:41
  • @Mark Ransom Will do that tomorrow & let u know. – stratis Mar 23 '13 at 21:23
  • @MarkRansom I got `Active code page: 737` – stratis Mar 24 '13 at 13:46

1 Answers1

3

Use the correct Greek code page in the console, as well as a font that supports Greek characters, such as Consolas. This worked for me in Windows 7 and Python 2.7.3:

C:\>chcp 1253
Active code page: 1253

C:\>python temp.py
ΚΑΛΗΜΕΡΑ
Σάββατο

FYI, Python 3.3 works correctly with the (also Greek) 737 code page, but Python 2.7 prints:

C:\>temp.py
????????
Σάββατο
Mark Tolonen
  • 166,664
  • 26
  • 169
  • 251
  • Unfortunately in my console your solution prints out complete jubberish for both strings... However I noticed that if I copy and paste these jubberish characters within my notepad or any other windowed program, then the result is full greek characters as you suggested... – stratis Mar 24 '13 at 18:34
  • 1
    That implies the console font you are using doesn't support the characters. I'm using `Consolas`. If I switch to `Raster Fonts` I get line drawing characters and such. I updated my answer. – Mark Tolonen Mar 24 '13 at 18:37
  • Thank you. Now your solution clears things out a bit and works just fine. – stratis Mar 24 '13 at 18:45