Python String encode()
Encoding means converting Unicode into a set of bytes. As we know that in Python data is stored in Unicode but from the security point of view we need to convert them into a set of bytes. This process increases the efficiency of the storage of strings. For example, passwords are in the string so to store them in a secure manner we use Python String encode()
method.
Different Encoding schemes are:
Python String encode()
: Introduction
A General Introduction to this method is given below:
-
This is an inbuilt method in Python.
-
By default, strings in Python are stored in Unicode but we can encode the string to provided encoding standards; there are several encoding schemes.
-
This method is mainly used to convert the Unicode of a string into encoding and python should support that encoding.
-
Mainly used for efficient storage of strings.
-
It mainly encodes a string using specified encoding; if the encoding is not specified then UTF-8 will be used
-
Main Application of encode()
: there is a need for secure storage of passwords(which are in the string) in the database, and hence there is to save encoded versions of strings.
Python String encode()
: Syntax
Below we have a basic syntax of String encode()
in Python:
string_var.encode(encoding, errors)
Python String encode()
: Parameters
The description of these its Parameters are given below:
This is used to indicate the type of encoding into which the string will be encoded. It is also a string that mainly specifies the encoding to be used.The default value of this parameter is "UTF-8".
This Parameter gives a response when the encoding fails, six encoding error responses are there. Basically this is a string that specifies the error method. The legal value of this parameter are given below:
-
'backslashreplace
': This value of errors uses a backslash instead of the character that could not be encoded. It can be written as errors="backslashreplace"
.
-
'ignore
': This value is used to ignore the characters that cannot be encoded. It can be written as errors="ignore"
.
-
'namereplace
': This value is used to replace the character with a text explaining the character. It can be written as errors="namereplace"
.
-
'strict
': This is a default value and it raises an error on failure. It can be written as errors="strict"
.
-
'replace
': This value is used to replaces the character with a questionmark. It can be written as errors="replace"
.
-
'xmlcharrefreplace
': This value is used to replace the character with an XML character. It can be written as errors="xmlcharrefreplace"
.
In case of failure of this String encode()
; UnicodeDecodeError
exception will be raised.
Python String encode()
: Basic Example
Below we have an example to show the working of encode()
function:
str1 = "Hello and welcome to the world of pythön!"
str2 = str1.encode()
print(str2)
The output for the same is given below and you will see the output in encoded form
b'Hello and welcome to the world of pyth\xc3\xb6n!'
Python String encode()
: Example using parameters
There is a code snippet below where we will use encode() functions parameters too. Let us see:
str1 = "Hello pythön!!"
print(str1.encode("ascii", "replace"))
Output for the same is given below:
b'Hello pyth?n!!'
Python String encode()
: Example using all values of errors
Parameter
Below we have a code snippet where we will use different values of errors which is one of the parameter of encode()
method:
string= "Ståle is my name"
print(string.encode(encoding="ascii",errors="backslashreplace"))
print(string.encode(encoding="ascii",errors="ignore"))
print(string.encode(encoding="ascii",errors="namereplace"))
print(string.encode(encoding="ascii",errors="replace"))
print(string.encode(encoding="ascii",errors="xmlcharrefreplace"))
print(string.encode(encoding="ascii",errors="strict"))
Thus the output of the above code will be:
b'St\\xe5le is my name'
b'Stle is my name'
b'St\\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE}le is my name'
b'St?le is my name'
b'Ståle is my name'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/tmp/sessions/353ccb2ca3d5d1fc/main.py", line 8, in <module>
print(string.encode(encoding="ascii",errors="strict"))
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character '\xe5' in position 2: ordinal not in range(128)
Time For Live Example!
Let us take a look at the live example for a clear understanding of encode()
method:
Summary
In this tutorial, we have learned about what is encoding? different encoding schemes, and a detailed description of encode()
method with an in-depth explanation of the parameters of encode()
method. After we saw different examples followed by Live Example.