Check if string is in array

Question

i'm trying to check if some strings are in one array, like this:

intact_columns = [...]

for key, value in obj.iteritems():

    if not key in intact_columns:

       print key

The problem is: there are items like this in the array:

Reten\xc3\xa7\xc3\xa3o (RET)

And the strings that i'm iterating over are like this:

Retenção (RET)

How could i parse the strings inside the array to look like normal strings?

Answer 1

The issue is because you are using the different encoding in both the strings. I am not the sure about the encoding type. It is safe to decode these to utf-8 (or utf-16) and then check. For example:

>>> my_list = ['Reten\xc3\xa7\xc3\xa3o (RET)', 'blah blah ...']
>>> my_string = 'Retenção (RET)'
>>> my_list[0].decode('utf-8')
u'Reten\xe7\xe3o (RET)'
>>> my_string.decode('utf-8')
u'Reten\xe7\xe3o (RET)'

Both holds the same decoded value

Check if string is in array

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