URL Character Decoding

[Kirk McDonald]

If you have a link such as, e.g.:

<a href="index.py? title=Main Menu">Main menu!</a>

The space will be translated to the character code '%20' when you later
retrieve the GET data. Not knowing if there was a library function that
would convert these back to their actual characters, I've written the
following:

import re

def sub_func(m):
return chr(int(m.group ()[1:], 16))

def parse_title(tit le):
p = re.compile(r'%[0-9][0-9]')
return re.sub(p, sub_func, title)

(I know I could probably use a lambda function instead of sub_func, but
I come to Python via C++ and am still not entirely used to them. This is
clearer to me, at least.)

I guess what I'm asking is: Is there a library function (in Python or
mod_python) that knows how to do this? Or, failing that, is there a
different regex I could use to get rid of the substitution function?

-Kirk McDonald

[Kirk McDonald]

Re: URL Character Decoding

Kirk McDonald wrote:[color=blue]
> If you have a link such as, e.g.:
>
> <a href="index.py? title=Main Menu">Main menu!</a>
>
> The space will be translated to the character code '%20' when you later
> retrieve the GET data. Not knowing if there was a library function that
> would convert these back to their actual characters, I've written the
> following:
>
> import re
>
> def sub_func(m):
> return chr(int(m.group ()[1:], 16))
>
> def parse_title(tit le):
> p = re.compile(r'%[0-9][0-9]')
> return re.sub(p, sub_func, title)
>
> (I know I could probably use a lambda function instead of sub_func, but
> I come to Python via C++ and am still not entirely used to them. This is
> clearer to me, at least.)
>
> I guess what I'm asking is: Is there a library function (in Python or
> mod_python) that knows how to do this? Or, failing that, is there a
> different regex I could use to get rid of the substitution function?
>
> -Kirk McDonald[/color]

Actually, I just noticed this doesn't really work at all. The URL
character codes are in hex, so not only does the regex not match what it
should, but sub_func fails miserably. See why I wanted a library function?

-Kirk McDonald

[Kirk McDonald]

Re: URL Character Decoding

Kirk McDonald wrote:[color=blue]
> Actually, I just noticed this doesn't really work at all. The URL
> character codes are in hex, so not only does the regex not match what it
> should, but sub_func fails miserably. See why I wanted a library function?
>
> -Kirk McDonald[/color]

Not to keep talking to myself, but looks like sub_func works fine, and
the regex just needs to be r'%[0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]'. But even so.

-Kirk McDonald

[Paul McGuire]

Re: URL Character Decoding

"Kirk McDonald" <mooquack@suad. org> wrote in message
news:43dd86ad@n ntp0.pdx.net...[color=blue]
> If you have a link such as, e.g.:
>
> <a href="index.py? title=Main Menu">Main menu!</a>
>
> The space will be translated to the character code '%20' when you later
> retrieve the GET data.
>
> I guess what I'm asking is: Is there a library function (in Python or
> mod_python) that knows how to do this? Or, failing that, is there a
> different regex I could use to get rid of the substitution function?
>
> -Kirk McDonald[/color]

[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> import urllib
>>> urllib.quote("i ndex.py?title=M ain Menu")[/color][/color][/color]
'index.py%3Ftit le%3DMain%20Men u'[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> urllib.unquote( "index.py%3Ftit le%3DMain%20Men u")[/color][/color][/color]
'index.py?title =Main Menu'

[Kirk McDonald]

Re: URL Character Decoding

Paul McGuire wrote:[color=blue]
> "Kirk McDonald" <mooquack@suad. org> wrote in message
> news:43dd86ad@n ntp0.pdx.net...
>[color=green]
>>If you have a link such as, e.g.:
>>
>><a href="index.py? title=Main Menu">Main menu!</a>
>>
>>The space will be translated to the character code '%20' when you later
>>retrieve the GET data.
>>
>>I guess what I'm asking is: Is there a library function (in Python or
>>mod_python) that knows how to do this? Or, failing that, is there a
>>different regex I could use to get rid of the substitution function?
>>
>>-Kirk McDonald[/color]
>
>
>[color=green][color=darkred]
>>>>import urllib
>>>>urllib.quot e("index.py?tit le=Main Menu")[/color][/color]
>
> 'index.py%3Ftit le%3DMain%20Men u'
>[color=green][color=darkred]
>>>>urllib.unqu ote("index.py%3 Ftitle%3DMain%2 0Menu")[/color][/color]
>
> 'index.py?title =Main Menu'
>
>[/color]

Perfect! Thanks.

-Kirk McDonald