no UnicodeError when using print with a default encoding set to ASCII

Question

After reading: Dive into Python: Unicode Discussion

I got curious to try printing my name in the indic script. I am using v2.7.2 -

>>> import sys
>>> sys.getdefaultencoding()
'ascii'
>>> name = u'\u0935\u0948\u092D\u0935'
>>> print name
वैभव

I was expecting print name to give me UnicodeError since the defaultencoding is set to ASCII so the auto-coercion to ASCII from Unicode shouldn't work.

What am I missing?

Anyone attempting to do serious Unicode work in Python had really best be using Python 3, not the legacy Python 2. But you will need a supplementary regex library, since re is broken on Unicode. And you really can’t do it, because of the horrible UCS‐²⁄₄ heisenbugs in Python. — tchrist
– tchrist, Commented Jul 30, 2011 at 17:56

unutbu · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-29 17:51:04Z

9

print uses sys.stdout.encoding, not sys.getdefaultencoding():

When Python finds its output attached to a terminal, it sets the sys.stdout.encoding attribute to the terminal's encoding. The print statement's handler will automatically encode unicode arguments into str output.

>>> import sys
>>> print(sys.stdout.encoding)
utf-8
>>> print(sys.getdefaultencoding())
ascii
>>> name = u'\u0935\u0948\u092D\u0935'
>>> print name
वैभव

edited Jul 29, 2011 at 17:51

answered Jul 29, 2011 at 17:44

unutbu

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