CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-2.7unicodeemoji
Andrew LaPrise
Andrew LaPrise

Reputation: 3413

Python - Reading Emoji Unicode Characters

I have a Python 2.7 program which reads iOS text messages from a SQLite database. The text messages are unicode strings. In the following text message:

u'that\u2019s \U0001f63b'

The apostrophe is represented by \u2019, but the emoji is represented by \U0001f63b. I looked up the code point for the emoji in question, and it's \uf63b. I'm not sure where the 0001 is coming from. I know comically little about character encodings.

When I print the text, character by character, using:

s = u'that\u2019s \U0001f63b'

for c in s:
    print c.encode('unicode_escape')

The program produces the following output:

t
h
a
t
\u2019
s

\ud83d
\ude3b

How can I correctly read these last characters in Python? Am I using encode correctly here? Should I just attempt to trash those 0001s before reading it, or is there an easier, less silly way?

Upvotes: 9

Views: 17344

Answers (2)

pvg
pvg

Reputation: 2729

I don't think you're using encode correctly, nor do you need to. What you have is a valid unicode string with one 4 digit and one 8 digit escape sequence. Try this in the REPL on, say, OS X

>>> s = u'that\u2019s \U0001f63b'
>>> print s
that’s 😻

In python3, though - 

Python 3.4.3 (default, Jul  7 2015, 15:40:07) 
>>> s  = u'that\u2019s \U0001f63b'
>>> s[-1]
'😻'

Upvotes: 19

Alyssa Haroldsen
Alyssa Haroldsen

Reputation: 3731

Your last part of confusion is likely due to the fact that you are running what is called a "narrow Python build". Python can't hold a single character with enough information to hold a single emoji. The best solution would be to move to Python 3. Otherwise, try to process the UTF-16 surrogate pair.

Upvotes: 3

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