Python Unicode Error With % Operator

Question

Not sure what I'm doing wrong here, but with this:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

class Foo(object):
    CURRENCY_SYMBOL_MAP = {"CAD":'$', "USD":'$', "GBP" : "£"}

    def bar(self, value, symbol="GBP"):
        result = u"%s%s" % (self.CURRENCY_SYMBOL_MAP[symbol], value)
        return result

if __name__ == "__main__":
    f = Foo()
    print f.bar(unicode("19.00"))

I get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py", line 11, in <module>
    print f.bar(unicode("19.00"))
  File "test.py", line 7, in bar
    result = u"%s%s" % (self.CURRENCY_SYMBOL_MAP[symbol], value)
  UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc2 in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)

This is with Python 2.7.6

PS - I get that there are libraries like Babel for formmatting things as currency, my question is more with respect to unicode strings and the % operator.

Could you use the new way of formatting strings?

OneCricketeer
– OneCricketeer

2016-02-04 16:42:50 +00:00
Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 16:42 — OneCricketeer
– OneCricketeer, Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 16:42

Mark Ransom · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-04 16:42:28Z

3

Make sure the strings you're inserting are Unicode too.

CURRENCY_SYMBOL_MAP = {"CAD":u'$', "USD":u'$', "GBP" : u"£"}

answered Feb 4, 2016 at 16:42

Mark Ransom

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Comments

Danny Dyla · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-04 16:43:16Z

1

You are attempting to insert a non-unicode string into a unicode string. You just have to make the values in CURRENCY_SYMBOL_MAP unicode objects.

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

class Foo(object):
    CURRENCY_SYMBOL_MAP = {"CAD":u'$', "USD":u'$', "GBP" : u"£"}  # this line is the difference

    def bar(self, value, symbol="GBP"):
        result = u"%s%s" % (self.CURRENCY_SYMBOL_MAP[symbol], value)
        return result

if __name__ == "__main__":
    f = Foo()
    print f.bar(unicode("19.00"))

answered Feb 4, 2016 at 16:43

Danny Dyla

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