How to remove "u" in output. Error: AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'encode'

Question

I am trying to store JSON output in a variable. Initially I got the output but it was prepended with character "u" (unicode). Below is the initial output:

{u'imdata': [{u'nvoNws': {u'attributes': {u'dn': u'sys/epId-1/nws', u'status': u'', u'persistentOnReload': u'true', u'monPolDn': u'', u'modTs': u'2017-02-24T00:50:47.373+00:00', u'uid': u'0', u'childAction': u''}}}, {u'nvoPeers': {u'attributes': {u'dn': u'sys/epId-1/peers', u'status': u'', u'persistentOnReload': u'true', u'monPolDn': u'', u'modTs': u'2017-02-24T00:50:47.373+00:00', u'uid': u'0', u'childAction': u''}}}, {u'nvoEp': {u'attributes': {u'status': u'', u'operState': u'down', u'persistentOnReload': u'true', u'propFaultBitmap': u'', u'hostReach': u'0', u'adminSt': u'disabled', u'holdUpTime': u'0', u'encapType': u'0', u'uid': u'0', u'epId': u'1', u'sourceInterface': u'unspecified', u'descr': u'', u'monPolDn': u'uni/fabric/monfab-default', u'modTs': u'2017-02-24T00:50:47.373+00:00', u'holdDownTimerExpiryTime': u'NA', u'autoRemapReplicationServers': u'no', u'operEncapType': u'0', u'dn': u'sys/epId-1', u'mac': u'00:00:00:00:00:00', u'cfgSrc': u'0', u'childAction': u'', u'vpcVIPNotified': u'no', u'learningMode': u'0', u'controllerId': u'0', u'holdUpTimerExpiryTime': u'NA', u'holdDownTime': u'180'}, u'children': [{u'nvoPeers': {u'attributes': {u'status': u'', u'persistentOnReload': u'true', u'monPolDn': u'', u'modTs': u'2017-02-24T00:50:47.373+00:00', u'uid': u'0', u'rn': u'peers', u'childAction': u''}}}, {u'nvoNws': {u'attributes': {u'status': u'', u'persistentOnReload': u'true', u'monPolDn': u'', u'modTs': u'2017-02-24T00:50:47.373+00:00', u'uid': u'0', u'rn': u'nws', u'childAction': u''}}}]}}], u'totalCount': u'3'}

So then I added encode('utf-8') to my print output statement and after that I got below error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/shandeep/Desktop/n9k-rest/Andys_payloads/Andys_script.py", line 548, in <module>
    get_interface_nve()
  File "/Users/shandeep/Desktop/n9k-rest/Andys_payloads/Andys_script.py", line 113, in get_interface_nve
    print(x.encode('utf-8'))
  AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'encode'

Below is definition and function call.

def request_get(dn):
    cookie = login_api()
    response = requests.get(url + dn + '?query-target=subtree&rsp-subtree=full', cookies=cookie, verify=False)
    print('Valid response: \n' + response.text)
    return response.json()

def get_interface_nve():
    x = request_get('/api/mo/sys/epId-1.json')
    print('PRINT OUTPUT: \n')
    #print(x)
    print(x.encode('utf-8'))

Function call:

get_interface_nve()

That `u` merely indicates that the string keys are `unicode` objects. There is no actual `'u'` character there. Note, it is outside the quotes. — juanpa.arrivillaga, Feb 24 '17 at 19:03
You are looking for: [Convert unicode string dictionary into dictionary in python](http://stackoverflow.com/a/1254499/1165509) — marcanuy, Feb 24 '17 at 19:07
@marcanuy but the OP hasn't indicated any reason to prefer `str` vs `unicode` types. Likely, they should just stick with the `unicode` — juanpa.arrivillaga, Feb 24 '17 at 19:13
@ juanpa.arrivillaga I figured out it was `unicode`, thats why I tried to convert it as I used to for `str`. But didnt know how to proceed with JSON output. @dsh gave a solution that worked. — Shandeep Murugasamy, Feb 24 '17 at 19:16

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 24 '17 at 19:07

11

dict objects do not have a method encode(). That is a method for str objects. The text you see is python's "repr" representation of a (unicode) string. You only have it because you used the wrong approach to convert your dict to a string.

You need to convert your dict to JSON. This is not achieved using print() or repr() or str(). Use the json module for this.

Eg:

x = {u'imdata': [{u'nvoNws': {u'attributes': {u'dn': u'sys/epId-1/nws'}}}]}
json.dump(x, sys.stdout)

answered Feb 24 '17 at 19:07

dsh

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Why would they convert it back to JSON? – Stefan Pochmann Feb 24 '17 at 19:11
@StefanPochmann I have no idea. The question is asked, without context of the project in which it exists. It does seem strange to me to retrieve JSON, convert to dict, and convert to JSON. That is partly why in my example I started with the dict object rather than JSON : ) – dsh Feb 24 '17 at 20:00
maybe they're making a change to original json object? that's what i'm doing and why i'm on this stackoverflow question – greenie-beans Jun 25 '20 at 14:26

How to remove "u" in output. Error: AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'encode'

1 Answers1