encoding - How can I encode and decode percent-encoded (URL encoded) strings in Python? -

i wrote simple application downloads articles wiki pages. when search, example firstname lech, code returns strings lech_kaczy%c5%84ski or lech_pozna%c5%84 instead of lech_kaczyński , lech_poznań.

how can decode characters ordinary polish letters? tried use: urllib.unquote(text) got lech_kaczy\xc5\x84ski, lech_pozna\xc5\x84 instead of lech_kaczyński , lech_poznań.

i have in code:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*- import sys reload(sys) sys.setdefaultencoding("utf-8") 

but result same (it not work).

try this:

import urllib urllib.unquote("lech_kaczy%c5%84ski").decode('utf8') 

this return unicode string:

u'lech_kaczy\u0144ski' 

which can print , process usual. example:

print(urllib.unquote("lech_kaczy%c5%84ski").decode('utf8')) 

will result in

lech_kaczyński