Question

I am using googlemaps Python package to do reverse geocoding. Observe:

PS Z:\dev\poc\SDR> python
Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, Nov 27 2010, 17:19:03) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from googlemaps import GoogleMaps
>>> gmaps = GoogleMaps("*** my google API key ***")
>>> d=gmaps.reverse_geocode(51.75,19.46667)
>>> d
{u'Status': {u'code': 200, u'request': u'geocode'}, u'Placemark': [{u'Point': {u'coordinates': [19.466876, 51.7501456, 0]}, u'ExtendedData': {u'LatLonBox': {u'west': 19.465527, u'east': 19.468225, u'n
orth': 51.7514946, u'south': 51.7487966}}, u'AddressDetails': {u'Country': {u'CountryName': u'Polska', u'AdministrativeArea': {u'SubAdministrativeArea': {u'SubAdministrativeAreaName': u'\u0141\xf3d\u0
17a', u'Locality': {u'Thoroughfare': {u'ThoroughfareName': u'ksi\u0119dza Biskupa Wincentego Tymienieckiego 16'}, u'LocalityName': u'\u0141\xf3d\u017a'}}, u'AdministrativeAreaName': u'\u0142\xf3dzkie'
}, u'CountryNameCode': u'PL'}, u'Accuracy': 8}, u'id': u'p1', u'address': u'ksi\u0119dza Biskupa Wincentego Tymienieckiego 16, 90-001 \u0141\xf3d\u017a, Poland'}], u'name': u'51.750000,19.466670'}
>>> import pprint
>>> pp = pprint.PrettyPrinter(indent = 2)
>>> pp.pprint(d)
{ u'Placemark': [ { u'AddressDetails': { u'Accuracy': 8,
                                         u'Country': { u'AdministrativeArea': { u'AdministrativeAreaName': u'\u0142\xf3dzkie',
                                                                                u'SubAdministrativeArea': { u'Locality': { u'LocalityName': u'\u0141\xf3d\u017a',
                                                                                                                           u'Thoroughfare': { u'ThoroughfareName': u'ksi\u0119dza Biskupa Wincentego Tym
ienieckiego 16'}},
                                                                                                            u'SubAdministrativeAreaName': u'\u0141\xf3d\u017a'}},
                                                       u'CountryName': u'Polska',
                                                       u'CountryNameCode': u'PL'}},
                    u'ExtendedData': { u'LatLonBox': { u'east': 19.468225,
                                                       u'north': 51.7514946,
                                                       u'south': 51.7487966,
                                                       u'west': 19.465527}},
                    u'Point': { u'coordinates': [19.466876, 51.7501456, 0]},
                    u'address': u'ksi\u0119dza Biskupa Wincentego Tymienieckiego 16, 90-001 \u0141\xf3d\u017a, Poland',
                    u'id': u'p1'}],
  u'Status': { u'code': 200, u'request': u'geocode'},
  u'name': u'51.750000,19.466670'}

Now, I want to save the d dictionary to a file, but I do not want to see u'\u0141\xf3d\u017a' as the locality name. I want to see Łódź. Indeed:

• \u0141 – http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0141/index.htm
• \xf3 = \u00f3 – http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/00f3/index.htm
• \u017a – http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/017a/index.htm

So, I have tried this:

with codecs.open("aa.txt", "w", "utf-8") as f:
  f.write(unicode(d))

and this:

with codecs.open("aa.txt", "w", "utf-8") as f:
  f.write(unicode(str(d), "utf-8"))

and this:

with open("aa.txt", "w") as f:
  f.write(unicode(d))

And of course, nothing works. All the trials yield \u0141\xf3d\u017a. How can I save it correctly?

Answer 1

Pass ensure_ascii=False to json.dump*() and use codecs.open().