Special Characters in Console

[Duncan Booth]

Gregor <palam_POOP_edes at softhome.net> wrote in 
news:ObHeb.1385$6C4.1108 at pd7tw1no:

> I am trying to print some special characters, but they come out as 
> different characters in the Python console. If I have a script like this:
> 
> # -*- coding: latin_1 -*-
> 
> print "Mädchen"
> print "M\xE4dchen"
> 
> Both statements produce a capital sigma where they ä should be. Typing 
> "\xE4" directly in the console also spits back a sigma.
> 
> What encoding does the console use? Is there a way to get it to use 
> latin-1?
... plus
> I forgot to mention, I'm using Python on Windows...
 
Assuming a console running in a window (as opposed to running fullscreen) 
then you need to do two things:

1. The default raster font used for console windows doesn't know about 
latin-1, so change it. Use the system menu, Properties and select "Lucida 
Console" instead of "Raster Fonts".

2. Use the CHCP command to select the Latin-1 codepage: CHCP 1252

Now rerun your script and you should see the correct characters.

Alternatively:

    print "M\xE4dchen".decode('latin1').encode('cp437')

will get your desired output on codepage 437.

-- 
Duncan Booth                                             duncan at rcp.co.uk
int month(char *p){return(124864/((p[0]+p[1]-p[2]&0x1f)+1)%12)["\5\x8\3"
"\6\7\xb\1\x9\xa\2\0\4"];} // Who said my code was obscure?