Failure to decode numerical html entities in Python 3.4

Asked Nov 09 '15 at 11:48

Active Nov 09 '15 at 12:05

Viewed 41 times

I use Python 3.4 for Windows. I've found this solution in SO:

import html
print(html.unescape('&#pound;682'))

Yet it does not work, neither it works with numeric encoded value: £

import html
print(html.unescape('&#163;682'))

The error is:

UnicodeEncodeError: 'charmap' codec can't encode character '\xa3' in position 0: character maps to <undefined>

Update

Thanks to Kevin I've found this useful:

print(html.unescape('&#163;682m'.encode(sys.stdout.encoding, errors='replace')))

yet another error:

TypeError: 'str' does not support the buffer interface What else can I try to decode it?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:03

Community

asked Nov 09 '15 at 11:48

Igor Savinkin

It works for me, using Python 3.5, on Arch Linux. – Remi Guan Nov 09 '15 at 11:49
@KevinGuan, am I missing any library? – Igor Savinkin Nov 09 '15 at 11:50
Well, I found [this question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24947092/codec-cant-encode-character-character-maps-to-undefined). Maybe the problem is about the encode. – Remi Guan Nov 09 '15 at 11:53
@KevinGuan, `print (sys.stdout.encoding)` returns **cp866**. Can/Should I change it? – Igor Savinkin Nov 09 '15 at 11:57
Actually I don't know, just say that I found a question has the same problem. – Remi Guan Nov 09 '15 at 12:03
On Windows, your best bet is to write it into a file (use utf-8 for encoding). The windows commandline and encodings are not good friends. – MKesper Nov 09 '15 at 12:20