Python String encode() Method with Examples

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String encode() Method in Python:

The encode() method encodes the string using the encoding specified. When no encoding is specified, UTF-8 is used.

Syntax:

string.encode(encoding=encoding, errors=errors)

Parameter Values:

encoding: This is Optional. A String indicating the encoding to be used. UTF-8 is the default.

errors: This is Optional. The error method is specified as a String. The following are legal values:

  • backslashreplace – employs a backslash in place of the unencoded character
  • ignore – does not encode characters that cannot be encoded.
  • namereplace – replaces the character with text that describes the character.
  • strict – On failure, the default raises an error.
  • replace – inserts a question mark in place of the character.
  • xmlcharrefreplace – a character is replaced with an xml character.

Examples:

Example1:

Input:

Given string =  "Welcome to Pythön-prögrams"

Output:

b'Welcome to Pyth\\xf6n-pr\\xf6grams'
b'Welcome to Pythn-prgrams'
b'Welcome to Pyth\\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS}n-pr\\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS}grams'
b'Welcome to Pyth?n-pr?grams'
b'Welcome to Pythön-prögrams'

Example2:

Input:

Given string = "Hello this is vikråm"

Output:

b'Hello this is vikr\\xe5m'
b'Hello this is vikrm'
b'Hello this is vikr\\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE}m'
b'Hello this is vikr?m'
b'Hello this is vikråm'

String encode() Method Examples in Python

Method #1: Using Built-in Functions (Static Input)

These examples demonstrate the use of ascii encoding and a character that cannot be encoded, with various errors:

Approach:

  • Give the string as static input() and store it in a variable.
  • Give the encoding value as ascii and errors as “backslashreplace” for the given string using the encode function and print it.
  • Here “backslashreplace” employs a backslash in place of the unencoded character.
  • Give the encoding value as ascii and errors as “ignore” for the given string using the encode function and print it.
  • Here “ignore” does not encode characters that cannot be encoded.
  • Give the encoding value as ascii and errors as “namereplace” for the given string using the encode function and print it.
  • Here “namereplace” replaces the character with text that describes the character.
  • Give the encoding value as ascii and errors as “replace” for the given string using the encode function and print it.
  • Here “replace” inserts a question mark in place of the character.
  • Give the encoding value as ascii and errors as “xmlcharrefreplace” for the given string using the encode function and print it.
  • Here “xmlcharrefreplace” is replacing a character with an xml character.
  • The Exit of the program.

Below is the implementation:

# Give the string as static input() and store it in a variable.
gvn_str = "Welcome to Pythön-prögrams"
# Give the encoding value as ascii and errors as "backslashreplace" for the
# given string using the encode function and print it.
# Here "backslashreplace" employs a backslash in place of the unencoded character.
print(gvn_str.encode(encoding="ascii", errors="backslashreplace"))
# Give the encoding value as ascii and errors as "ignore" for the given
# string using the encode function and print it.
# Here "ignore" does not encode characters that cannot be encoded.
print(gvn_str.encode(encoding="ascii", errors="ignore"))
# Give the encoding value as ascii and errors as "namereplace" for the given
# string using the encode function and print it.
# Here "namereplace" replaces the character with text that describes the character.
print(gvn_str.encode(encoding="ascii", errors="namereplace"))
# Give the encoding value as ascii and errors as "replace" for the given
# string using the encode function and print it.
# Here "replace" inserts a question mark in place of the character.
print(gvn_str.encode(encoding="ascii", errors="replace"))
# Give the encoding value as ascii and errors as "xmlcharrefreplace" for the
# given string using the encode function and print it.
# Here "xmlcharrefreplace" is replacing a character with an xml character.
print(gvn_str.encode(encoding="ascii", errors="xmlcharrefreplace"))

Output:

b'Welcome to Pyth\\xf6n-pr\\xf6grams'
b'Welcome to Pythn-prgrams'
b'Welcome to Pyth\\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS}n-pr\\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS}grams'
b'Welcome to Pyth?n-pr?grams'
b'Welcome to Pythön-prögrams'

Method #2: UTF-8 encoding to the given string (Static Input)

Below is the implementation:

gvn_str = "Hello this is vikråm"
rslt = gvn_str.encode()
print(rslt)

Output:

b'Hello this is vikr\xc3\xa5m'

String Encoding:

Strings have been stored as Unicode since Python 3.0, which means that each character in the string is represented by a code point. As a result, each string is simply a series of Unicode code points.

The sequence of code points is converted into a set of bytes for efficient storage of these strings. Encoding is the name given to this process.

There are numerous encodings available, each of which treats a string differently. Popular encodings include utf-8, ascii, and others.

Using the string encode() method, you can convert unicode strings to any Python encoding. Python’s default encoding is utf-8.

Go through our tutorial and learn about various Python String Method Examples and learn how to apply the knowledge while dealing with strings.