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python requests utf-8

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 2 min read

Python Requests and UTF-8 Encoding

If you are working with Python Requests library, you may encounter situations where you need to encode your request data or response data in UTF-8 format. UTF-8 is a character encoding that can represent any character in the Unicode standard, making it a popular choice for internationalization and localization of applications.

Encoding Request Data in UTF-8

When you send data in a request using the Requests library, it is sent as bytes. If your data contains non-ASCII characters, you need to encode it in UTF-8 format before sending it. Here's an example:


import requests

data = {'name': 'Jörg'}
response = requests.post('http://example.com', data=data.encode('utf-8'))

In this example, we're sending a POST request to 'http://example.com' with a dictionary containing a name that contains a non-ASCII character. We encode the data using UTF-8 before sending it.

Decoding Response Data in UTF-8

When you receive data in a response using the Requests library, it is received as bytes. If the response contains non-ASCII characters, you need to decode it from UTF-8 format into a string. Here's an example:


import requests

response = requests.get('http://example.com')
data = response.content.decode('utf-8')

In this example, we're sending a GET request to 'http://example.com'. When we receive the response, we decode the content from UTF-8 format into a string.

Using UTF-8 by Default

If you are frequently working with non-ASCII characters, you may want to use UTF-8 encoding by default for all requests and responses. You can do this by setting the 'charset' parameter in the 'Content-Type' header of your requests:


import requests

headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8'}
data = {'name': 'Jörg'}
response = requests.post('http://example.com', headers=headers, json=data)

In this example, we're setting the 'charset' parameter to UTF-8 in the 'Content-Type' header. This tells the server that we are sending UTF-8 encoded data. The Requests library will automatically encode our data in UTF-8 format and set the correct headers in our request.

Similarly, when we receive a response, we can tell Requests to automatically decode the response data using UTF-8 by setting the 'encoding' parameter:


import requests

response = requests.get('http://example.com')
response.encoding = 'utf-8'
data = response.text

In this example, we're setting the 'encoding' parameter to UTF-8, which tells Requests to automatically decode the response data using UTF-8.

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