How can I replace '%' to '\x' in Python

Question

My aim is that converting base64 encoding "%EB" string to "\xEB". However, as soon as I tried, I found that it is hard and can't achieved by string.replace nor re.sub both.

My code failed as below:

target = '%EB%AF%B8%EB%9F%AC%EC%8A%A4%20%EC%97%A3%EC%A7%80'

target.replace('%','\x')
-> ValueError: invalid \x escape

re.sub('%','\x',target)
-> ValueError: invalid \x escape

UPDATED:

Thanks for comments, I tried '\x' and r'\x', however, it seems that those couldn't be a solution.

for example,

target = '%EB%AF%B8%EB%9F%AC%EC%8A%A4%20%EC%97%A3%EC%A7%80'
converted1 = target.replace('%',r'\x')
converted2 = target.replace('%','\\x')
converted1
-> '\\xEB\\xAF\\xB8\\xEB\\x9F\\xAC\\xEC\\x8A\\xA4\\x20\\xEC\\x97\\xA3\\xEC\\xA7\\x80'
converted2
-> '\\xEB\\xAF\\xB8\\xEB\\x9F\\xAC\\xEC\\x8A\\xA4\\x20\\xEC\\x97\\xA3\\xEC\\xA7\\x80'

Results:

print converted1
\xEB\xAF\xB8\xEB\x9F\xAC\xEC\x8A\xA4\x20\xEC\x97\xA3\xEC\xA7\x80
print converted2
\xEB\xAF\xB8\xEB\x9F\xAC\xEC\x8A\xA4\x20\xEC\x97\xA3\xEC\xA7\x80

What I want to have is:

print "\xEB\xAF\xB8\xEB\x9F\xAC\xEC\x8A\xA4\x20\xEC\x97\xA3\xEC\xA7\x80"
미러스 엣지

Escape the slash: `replace('%', '\\x')`, etc – jedwards Jun 13 '13 at 07:48 — jedwards, Jun 13 '13 at 07:48

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 13 '13 at 08:12

The method replace cannot decode URL-safe string. It just replace character % to \x. If you want to decode URL-safe string, you should use urllib.unquote.

import urllib
target = '%EB%AF%B8%EB%9F%AC%EC%8A%A4%20%EC%97%A3%EC%A7%80'
print urllib.unquote(target)

score 6 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

6

>>> target = '%EB%AF%B8%EB%9F%AC%EC%8A%A4%20%EC%97%A3%EC%A7%80'
>>> target.replace('%',r'\x')
'xEBxAFxB8xEBx9FxACxECx8AxA4x20xECx97xA3xECxA7x80'

Why is '\x' invalid in Python?

For the second part of your code, use:

print target.replace('%',r'\x').decode('string-escape')

Though this fixes your error, the best solution is the one by @kamae

edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

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answered Jun 13 '13 at 07:48

jamylak

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or one can use `'\\x'` string literal instead of `r'\x'` – oleg Jun 13 '13 at 07:49

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

I think you missed difference between CLI of interactive Python and the python source code. What you actually do in your code is changing character "%" in the string into "\x" characters.

What you do from the Python's command line is to enter string with escape code interpreted at the moment of string creation (when you pressed Enter). Your string then is unicode and contains binary representation of your Korean characters.

Converting unicode codepoints to UTF8 hex in Python may help you.

How can I replace '%' to '\x' in Python

3 Answers3

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