Python Requests: 'ascii' codec can't encode character
If you are working with Python requests and trying to send a request with a non-ASCII character, you may encounter an error message that says "'ascii' codec can't encode character". This error occurs because the default encoding for Python is ASCII, which does not support non-ASCII characters such as accented letters or symbols.
To fix this error, you need to change the encoding to one that supports non-ASCII characters. One way to do this is to use the encode() method to convert the string to a different encoding before sending the request.
import requests
url = 'https://example.com'
data = {'name': 'Jóhn Dœ', 'age': 30}
headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8'}
response = requests.post(url, data=data.encode('utf-8'), headers=headers)
In this example, we are sending a POST request with data that includes a name with non-ASCII characters. We first specify the encoding in the headers by setting the Content-Type to application/json; charset=utf-8. Then, we use the encode() method to convert the data to UTF-8 encoding before sending the request.
Another way to fix this error is to set the default encoding for the entire Python script using the sys.setdefaultencoding() method. However, this method is not recommended as it can cause compatibility issues with other libraries and may not work in all situations.
In conclusion, when working with Python requests and non-ASCII characters, it is important to specify the correct encoding in the headers and/or use the encode() method to convert the data to the correct encoding before sending the request.