UTF8 invalid codec in python

Question

I’m using this code in the script:

#! /usr/bin/env python
# coding: utf8
import MySQLdb

db = MySQLdb.connect(host="xxx.xxx.x.xx", user="xxxxx", passwd="xxxxxxx", db="xxxxxxx")    

cursor = db.cursor()

cursor.execute("SELECT DataConsulta, Dias, HoraConsulta, HoraSaida, nome, Consulta, centrodb.LocalConsulta.Descricao, Contato FROM centrodb.RegistoConsultas LEFT OUTER JOIN centrodb.LocalConsulta ON centrodb.LocalConsulta.Id = centrodb.RegistoConsultas.`Local` LEFT OUTER JOIN centrodb.UtentesCons ON centrodb.UtentesCons.codigoutente = centrodb.RegistoConsultas.Utente LEFT OUTER JOIN centrodb.DiasSemana ON centrodb.DiasSemana.Id = centrodb.RegistoConsultas.DiaSemana")

myresult = cursor.fetchall()

for linha in myresult:
 DataConsulta = linha[0]
 Dias = linha[1]
 HoraConsulta = linha[2]
 HoraSaida = linha[3]
 nome = linha[4]
 Consulta = linha[5]
 Descricao = linha[6]
 Contato = linha[7]

 today = datetime.date.today()
 data = today + datetime.timedelta(days=7)

 if DataConsulta == data:
 ...

But when running the script I get this error:

The problem is the characters that exist in the database table with ~, how can I solve the problem?

Answer 1

This is because you are actually reading data that is not in UTF-8.

In your case in the error it is possible to see that this occurs in the character 'Ã' and to search for the character 0xe3 will realize that he is the hexa para 'a'. That’s why the message:

can’t Decode byte 0xe3.

Add on bank connection charset='utf8':

db = MySQLdb.connect(host="xxx.xxx.x.xx", user="xxxxx", passwd="xxxxxxx", db="xxxxxxx", charset='utf8')