UnicodeDecodeEr ror: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xa0 in position 10: ordinal not in range(128)

[Robin Siebler]

I have no idea what is causing this error, or how to fix it. The full error is:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "D:\ScriptRunti me\PS\Automatio n\Handlers\SCMT estToolResource ToolsBAT.py",
line 60, in Run
PS.Automation.U tility.System.A ppendSystemPath (args["PATH"], context)
File "D:\ScriptRunti me\PS\Automatio n\Utility\Syste m.py", line 55, in AppendSys
temPath
AppendPathVaria ble("PATH", appendtext, context)
File "D:\ScriptRunti me\PS\Automatio n\Utility\Syste m.py", line 37, in AppendPat
hVariable
if(ap == pp):
UnicodeDecodeEr ror: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xa0 in position 10: ordinal
not in range(128)

The code for the function is:

def AppendPathVaria ble(variable, appendtext, context):
"""AppendSystem Path(appendtext , context) -> None

Appends a directory string to the system path. The string can be
as single path or multiple paths seperated by a semi-colon."""

if(os.environ.h as_key(variable )):
curpath = os.environ[variable]

pathparts = string.split(cu rpath, ";")
appendparts = string.split(ap pendtext, ";")

for ap in appendparts:
found = 0

for pp in pathparts:
if(ap == pp):
found = 1

if(found == 0):
pathparts.appen d(ap)
#end for ap in appendparts

newpath = string.join(pat hparts, ";")
os.environ[variable] = newpath
else:
os.environ[variable] = appendtext

[Jeff Epler]

If you compare a unicode string to a byte string, and the byte-string
has byte values >127, you will get an error like this:

u'a' == '\xc0'

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
UnicodeDecodeEr ror: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0x80 in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)

There is no sensible way for Python to perform this comparison, because
the byte string '\xc0' could be in any encoding. If the encoding of the
byte string is latin-1, it's LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH GRAVE. If it's
koi8-r encoded, it's CRYILLIC SMALL LETTER YU. Python refuses to guess
in this case.

It doesn't matter whether the unicode string contains any characters
that are non-ASCII characters.

To correct your function, you'll have to know what encoding the byte
string is in, and convert it to unicode using the decode() method,
and compare that result to the unicode string.

Jeff

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFBZdclJd0 1MZaTXX0RAn3dAJ 0SnEr4Rc841EZlZ qeDVnLl5khIvACf caUz
pym81hgmHf6yv59 2fGPEw7c=
=HYB+
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[Robin Siebler]

It's just a file path. It doesn't *have* any non-ASCII chars in it to
begin with! That's why I don't understand why I'm getting the error.
I didn't get it with Python 2.2, but we just upgraded to
(Active)Python 2.3.

[Jeff Epler]

On Fri, Oct 08, 2004 at 12:25:26PM -0700, Robin Siebler wrote:

It's just a file path. It doesn't *have* any non-ASCII chars in it to
begin with!

Well, then, be sure to follow up when you find the real cause, because I
don't know of another reason that isn't along the lines I mentioned.

Jeff

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFBZu25Jd0 1MZaTXX0RAr4HAJ 4p9Isl8/ZGxhZhAWLU39yYs zd+WwCfSm4e
A8Lbqnb270taGwl foE6P3FA=
=kwqz
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[Tim Peters]

[Robin Siebler]

It's just a file path. It doesn't *have* any non-ASCII chars in it to
begin with!
[Jeff Epler]

Well, then, be sure to follow up when you find the real cause, because I
don't know of another reason that isn't along the lines I mentioned.

Robin, your original report disagrees with your belief:
if(ap == pp):
UnicodeDecodeEr ror: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xa0 in position 10: ordinal
not in range(128)

0xa0 is not an ASCII character. We can't tell from the traceback
which of ap and pp is Unicode, and which isn't, but presumably your
knowledge of your app will tell you.

That something is "a file path" doesn't mean anything -- you're
running on Windows, and Windows doesn't restrict paths to containing
ASCII characters.
f = open('\xa0\xa0. txt', 'w')
f.name '\xa0\xa0.txt' f.close()
import os
for fn in os.listdir('.') :

.... if fn.endswith('.t xt'):
.... print fn
b.txt
bb.txt
BUILDno.txt
NormalizationTe st-3.2.0.txt
readme.txt
áá.txt

The last line may not show up correctly for you, since it contains
non-ASCII characters. When I sent it, it looked like

aa.txt

but with diacritcal marks "on top of" the a's.