Django 'ascii' codec can't encode character

Question

In Django I want to use a simple template tag to truncate data.

This is what I have so far:

@register.filter(name='truncate_simple')
def truncate_char_to_space(value, arg):
    """
    Truncates a string after a given length.
    """
    data = str(value)
    if len(value) < arg:
        return data

    if data.find(' ', arg, arg+5) == -1:
        return data[:arg] + '...'
    else:
        return data[:arg] + data[arg:data.find(' ', arg)] + '...'

But when I use it I get the following error:

{{ item.content|truncate_simple:5  }}

Error:

'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\u2013' in position 84: ordinal not in range(128)

Error is on line starting data = str(value)

Why?

did you try adding "from __future__ import unicode_literals" to th top of python file? — elad silver, May 31 '16 at 13:23

score 29 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 05 '16 at 19:20

29

If you're using django and python 2.7 this fixes it for me:

from django.utils.encoding import python_2_unicode_compatible

@python_2_unicode_compatible
class Utente(models.Model):

see https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/utils/#django.utils.encoding.python_2_unicode_compatible

edited Nov 05 '16 at 19:20

tony19

125,647
18
229
307

answered May 09 '14 at 13:55

max4ever

11,909
13
77
115

1

That is a best answer! Thanks!!! But you forgot *from django.utils.encoding import python_2_unicode_compatible* – ahtartam Jul 11 '16 at 21:24
Thanks, this fixed my problems. – Jesus Nov 30 '17 at 13:25

arturex · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-01T14:36:02.500

12

try to use unicode() to convert value (instead of str()):

data = unicode(value)

edited Jun 01 '16 at 14:36

answered Jul 31 '13 at 16:17

arturex

568
5
11

perfect, but could you explain. – GrantU Jul 31 '13 at 16:20
12

Please don't randomly suggest adding a coding declaration. The question has nothing to do with that - it is for defining the encoding of character literals in the source file. – Daniel Roseman Aug 01 '13 at 08:06
2

@DanielRoseman is right about coding declaration. To decoding character unicode(value) is sufficient. – arturex Aug 01 '13 at 09:51

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 22 '15 at 08:17

6

@max4ever 's answer works for me. also sometimes you should put this line in the head of python files:

from __future__ import unicode_literals

it can be helpful when solving unicode encoding issues like this one.

answered Oct 22 '15 at 08:17

realhu

935
9
12

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

4

in settings.py add this

import sys
reload(sys)
sys.setdefaultencoding('UTF8')

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

1
1

answered Jul 05 '18 at 16:55

Rubén Morales Félix

632
7
11

3

This is actually bad idea, as it might break libraries that are using different encoding. – Mandemon Dec 10 '19 at 11:52

Django 'ascii' codec can't encode character

4 Answers4

in settings.py add this

Linked