Other answers here seem to indicate that constructing this list programmatically is difficult and fraught with traps. However, doing so is probably unnecessary since the documentation contains a complete list of the standard encodings Python supports, and has done since Python 2.3.
You can find these lists (for each stable version of the language so far released) at:
- https://docs.python.org/2.3/lib/node130.html
- https://docs.python.org/2.4/lib/standard-encodings.html
- https://docs.python.org/2.5/lib/standard-encodings.html
- https://docs.python.org/2.6/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/2.7/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.0/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.1/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.2/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.3/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.9/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.10/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.12/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.13/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
Below are the lists for each documented version of Python. Note that if you want backwards-compatibility rather than just supporting a particular version of Python, you can just copy the list from the latest Python version and check whether each encoding exists in the Python running your program before trying to use it.
Python 2.3 (59 encodings)
['ascii',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8']
Python 2.4 (85 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8']
Python 2.5 (86 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 2.6 (90 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 2.7 (93 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_11',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.0 (89 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.1 (90 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.2 (92 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.3 (93 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'cp65001',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.4 (96 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp273',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1125',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'cp65001',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_11',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.5 (98 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp273',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1125',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'cp65001',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_11',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_t',
'koi8_u',
'kz1048',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.6 (98 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.7 (98 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.8 (97 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp273',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1125',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_11',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_t',
'koi8_u',
'kz1048',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.9 (97 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.10 (97 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.11 (97 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.12 (97 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.13 (97 encodings)
Same as previous version.
In case they're relevant to anyone's use case, note that the docs also list some Python-specific encodings, many of which seem to be primarily for use by Python's internals or are otherwise weird in some way, like the 'undefined' encoding which always throws an exception if you try to use it. You probably want to ignore these completely if, like the question-asker here, you're trying to figure out what encoding was used for some text you've come across in the real world. As of Python 3.7, the list is as follows:
["idna",
"mbcs",
"oem",
"palmos",
"punycode",
"raw_unicode_escape",
"rot_13",
"undefined",
"unicode_escape",
"unicode_internal",
"base64_codec",
"bz2_codec",
"hex_codec",
"quopri_codec",
"uu_codec",
"zlib_codec"]
Some older Python versions had a string_escape special encoding that I've not included in the above list because it's been removed from the language.
Finally, in case you'd like to update my tables above for a newer version of Python, here's the (crude, not very robust) script I used to generate them:
import re
import requests
import lxml.html
import pprint
previous = None
for version, url in [
('2.3', 'https://docs.python.org/2.3/lib/node130.html'),
('2.4', 'https://docs.python.org/2.4/lib/standard-encodings.html'),
('2.5', 'https://docs.python.org/2.5/lib/standard-encodings.html'),
('2.6', 'https://docs.python.org/2.6/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('2.7', 'https://docs.python.org/2.7/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.0', 'https://docs.python.org/3.0/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.1', 'https://docs.python.org/3.1/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.2', 'https://docs.python.org/3.2/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.3', 'https://docs.python.org/3.3/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.4', 'https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.5', 'https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.6', 'https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.7', 'https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.8', 'https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.9', 'https://docs.python.org/3.9/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.10', 'https://docs.python.org/3.10/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.11', 'https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.12', 'https://docs.python.org/3.12/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.13', 'https://docs.python.org/3.13/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
]:
html = requests.get(url).text
# Work-around for weird HTML markup in recent versions of Python documentation:
html = re.sub('<[/]?p>', '', html)
doc = lxml.html.fromstring(html)
standard_encodings_table = doc.xpath(
'//table[preceding::h2[.//text()[contains(., "Standard Encodings")]]][//th/text()="Codec"]'
)[0]
codecs = standard_encodings_table.xpath('.//td[1]/text()')
print("## Python %s (%i encodings)\n" % (version, len(codecs)))
if codecs == previous:
print('_Same as previous version._\n')
else:
print('```python\n' + pprint.pformat(codecs) + '\n```\n')
previous = codecs
W3Schools
w3schools.com › python › ref_string_encode.asp
Python String encode() Method
Python Examples Python Compiler Python Exercises Python Quiz Python Challenges Python Practice Problems Python Server Python Syllabus Python Study Plan Python Interview Q&A Python Training ... The encode() method encodes the string, using the specified encoding.
Codecademy
codecademy.com › docs › python › strings › .encode()
Python | Strings | .encode() | Codecademy
October 23, 2023 - The first call does not specify encoding or error handling, so UTF-8 and strict error handling is used. The second call specifies UTF-16 and ignore error handling is used. ... Looking for an introduction to the theory behind programming? Master Python while learning data structures, algorithms, and more!
Top answer 1 of 10
159
Other answers here seem to indicate that constructing this list programmatically is difficult and fraught with traps. However, doing so is probably unnecessary since the documentation contains a complete list of the standard encodings Python supports, and has done since Python 2.3.
You can find these lists (for each stable version of the language so far released) at:
- https://docs.python.org/2.3/lib/node130.html
- https://docs.python.org/2.4/lib/standard-encodings.html
- https://docs.python.org/2.5/lib/standard-encodings.html
- https://docs.python.org/2.6/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/2.7/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.0/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.1/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.2/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.3/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.9/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.10/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.12/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
- https://docs.python.org/3.13/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings
Below are the lists for each documented version of Python. Note that if you want backwards-compatibility rather than just supporting a particular version of Python, you can just copy the list from the latest Python version and check whether each encoding exists in the Python running your program before trying to use it.
Python 2.3 (59 encodings)
['ascii',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8']
Python 2.4 (85 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8']
Python 2.5 (86 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 2.6 (90 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 2.7 (93 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_11',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.0 (89 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.1 (90 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.2 (92 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.3 (93 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'cp65001',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.4 (96 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp273',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1125',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'cp65001',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_11',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_u',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.5 (98 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp273',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1125',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'cp65001',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_11',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_t',
'koi8_u',
'kz1048',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.6 (98 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.7 (98 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.8 (97 encodings)
['ascii',
'big5',
'big5hkscs',
'cp037',
'cp273',
'cp424',
'cp437',
'cp500',
'cp720',
'cp737',
'cp775',
'cp850',
'cp852',
'cp855',
'cp856',
'cp857',
'cp858',
'cp860',
'cp861',
'cp862',
'cp863',
'cp864',
'cp865',
'cp866',
'cp869',
'cp874',
'cp875',
'cp932',
'cp949',
'cp950',
'cp1006',
'cp1026',
'cp1125',
'cp1140',
'cp1250',
'cp1251',
'cp1252',
'cp1253',
'cp1254',
'cp1255',
'cp1256',
'cp1257',
'cp1258',
'euc_jp',
'euc_jis_2004',
'euc_jisx0213',
'euc_kr',
'gb2312',
'gbk',
'gb18030',
'hz',
'iso2022_jp',
'iso2022_jp_1',
'iso2022_jp_2',
'iso2022_jp_2004',
'iso2022_jp_3',
'iso2022_jp_ext',
'iso2022_kr',
'latin_1',
'iso8859_2',
'iso8859_3',
'iso8859_4',
'iso8859_5',
'iso8859_6',
'iso8859_7',
'iso8859_8',
'iso8859_9',
'iso8859_10',
'iso8859_11',
'iso8859_13',
'iso8859_14',
'iso8859_15',
'iso8859_16',
'johab',
'koi8_r',
'koi8_t',
'koi8_u',
'kz1048',
'mac_cyrillic',
'mac_greek',
'mac_iceland',
'mac_latin2',
'mac_roman',
'mac_turkish',
'ptcp154',
'shift_jis',
'shift_jis_2004',
'shift_jisx0213',
'utf_32',
'utf_32_be',
'utf_32_le',
'utf_16',
'utf_16_be',
'utf_16_le',
'utf_7',
'utf_8',
'utf_8_sig']
Python 3.9 (97 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.10 (97 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.11 (97 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.12 (97 encodings)
Same as previous version.
Python 3.13 (97 encodings)
Same as previous version.
In case they're relevant to anyone's use case, note that the docs also list some Python-specific encodings, many of which seem to be primarily for use by Python's internals or are otherwise weird in some way, like the 'undefined' encoding which always throws an exception if you try to use it. You probably want to ignore these completely if, like the question-asker here, you're trying to figure out what encoding was used for some text you've come across in the real world. As of Python 3.7, the list is as follows:
["idna",
"mbcs",
"oem",
"palmos",
"punycode",
"raw_unicode_escape",
"rot_13",
"undefined",
"unicode_escape",
"unicode_internal",
"base64_codec",
"bz2_codec",
"hex_codec",
"quopri_codec",
"uu_codec",
"zlib_codec"]
Some older Python versions had a string_escape special encoding that I've not included in the above list because it's been removed from the language.
Finally, in case you'd like to update my tables above for a newer version of Python, here's the (crude, not very robust) script I used to generate them:
import re
import requests
import lxml.html
import pprint
previous = None
for version, url in [
('2.3', 'https://docs.python.org/2.3/lib/node130.html'),
('2.4', 'https://docs.python.org/2.4/lib/standard-encodings.html'),
('2.5', 'https://docs.python.org/2.5/lib/standard-encodings.html'),
('2.6', 'https://docs.python.org/2.6/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('2.7', 'https://docs.python.org/2.7/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.0', 'https://docs.python.org/3.0/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.1', 'https://docs.python.org/3.1/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.2', 'https://docs.python.org/3.2/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.3', 'https://docs.python.org/3.3/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.4', 'https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.5', 'https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.6', 'https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.7', 'https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.8', 'https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.9', 'https://docs.python.org/3.9/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.10', 'https://docs.python.org/3.10/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.11', 'https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.12', 'https://docs.python.org/3.12/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
('3.13', 'https://docs.python.org/3.13/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings'),
]:
html = requests.get(url).text
# Work-around for weird HTML markup in recent versions of Python documentation:
html = re.sub('<[/]?p>', '', html)
doc = lxml.html.fromstring(html)
standard_encodings_table = doc.xpath(
'//table[preceding::h2[.//text()[contains(., "Standard Encodings")]]][//th/text()="Codec"]'
)[0]
codecs = standard_encodings_table.xpath('.//td[1]/text()')
print("## Python %s (%i encodings)\n" % (version, len(codecs)))
if codecs == previous:
print('_Same as previous version._\n')
else:
print('```python\n' + pprint.pformat(codecs) + '\n```\n')
previous = codecs
2 of 10
49
Unfortunately encodings.aliases.aliases.keys() is NOT an appropriate answer.
aliases(as one would/should expect) contains several cases where different keys are mapped to the same value e.g. 1252 and windows_1252 are both mapped to cp1252. You could save time if instead of aliases.keys() you use set(aliases.values()).
BUT THERE'S A WORSE PROBLEM: aliases doesn't contain codecs that don't have aliases (like cp856, cp874, cp875, cp737, and koi8_u).
>>> from encodings.aliases import aliases
>>> def find(q):
... return [(k,v) for k, v in aliases.items() if q in k or q in v]
...
>>> find('1252') # multiple aliases
[('1252', 'cp1252'), ('windows_1252', 'cp1252')]
>>> find('856') # no codepage 856 in aliases
[]
>>> find('koi8') # no koi8_u in aliases
[('cskoi8r', 'koi8_r')]
>>> 'x'.decode('cp856') # but cp856 is a valid codec
u'x'
>>> 'x'.decode('koi8_u') # but koi8_u is a valid codec
u'x'
>>>
It's also worth noting that however you obtain a full list of codecs, it may be a good idea to ignore the codecs that aren't about encoding/decoding character sets, but do some other transformation e.g. zlib, quopri, and base64.
Which brings us to the question of WHY you want to "try encoding bytes into many different encodings". If we know that, we may be able to steer you in the right direction.
For a start, that's ambiguous. One DEcodes bytes into unicode, and one ENcodes unicode into bytes. Which do you want to do?
What are you really trying to achieve: Are you trying to determine which codec to use to decode some incoming bytes, and plan to attempt this with all possible codecs? [note: latin1 will decode anything] Are you trying to determine the language of some unicode text by trying to encode it with all possible codecs? [note: utf8 will encode anything].
Python Reference
python-reference.readthedocs.io › en › latest › docs › str › encode.html
encode — Python Reference (The Right Way) 0.1 documentation
Optional. errors may be given to set a different error handling scheme. ... Raise ValueError (or a subclass); this is the default. ... Ignore the character and continue with the next. ... Other possible values are any other name registered via codecs.register_error(), see section Codec Base Classes. ... >>> 'foo'.encode() 'foo' >>> 'foo'.encode('windows-1250', 'strict') 'foo' >>> 'foo'.encode('windows-1250', 'ignore') 'foo' >>> 'foo'.encode('windows-1250', 'replace') 'foo' >>> 'foo'.encode('windows-1250', 'xmlcharrefreplace') 'foo' >>> 'foo'.encode('windows-1250', 'backslashreplace') 'foo'
Python
docs.python.org › 3 › library › codecs.html
codecs — Codec registry and base classes
On encoding, a UTF-8 encoded BOM will be prepended to the UTF-8 encoded bytes. For the stateful encoder this is only done once (on the first write to the byte stream). On decoding, an optional UTF-8 encoded BOM at the start of the data will be skipped. ... © Copyright 2001 Python Software ...
Programiz
programiz.com › python-programming › methods › string › encode
Python String encode()
Note: Try different encoding and error parameters as well. Since Python 3.0, strings are stored as Unicode, i.e. each character in the string is represented by a code point.
Python documentation
docs.python.org › 3 › howto › unicode.html
Unicode HOWTO — Python 3.14.7 documentation
In addition, one can create a string using the decode() method of bytes. This method takes an encoding argument, such as UTF-8, and optionally an errors argument.
LinkedIn
linkedin.com › pulse › my-guide-encodingdecoding-text-data-python-andrew-f
My Guide to Encoding/Decoding Text Data with Python
February 28, 2023 - In some cases, attempting to decode with a different encoding scheme may be appropriate, while in other cases simply raising an exception may be the better option. ... In conclusion, to encode and decode data in Python, choose an appropriate encoding scheme, use .encode() and .decode() methods, transmit or store encoded data, validate your decoded data, and handle errors.
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python-strings-encode-method
Python - Strings encode() method - GeeksforGeeks
December 30, 2024 - Python · s = "Hello, World!" encoded_text = s.encode() print(encoded_text) Output · b'Hello, World!' The string "Hello, World!" is encoded into bytes using the default UTF-8 encoding. The result, b'Hello, World!', is a bytes object prefixed with b. string.encode(encoding="utf-8", errors="strict") encoding (optional): The encoding format to use.
GitHub
gist.github.com › afeblot › 4147354f36cf7204cfcea1c07af87a7f
Encoding in Python, once and for all · GitHub
Be aware, however, that these options are hacks, things to try when everything described above has gone wrong. If you do your job right, this shouldn't happen very often. Once or twice a year max, unless you're working in a very, very crappy environment. First, let's talk about the inputs. If you receive an object and can't find the encoding, you can force imperfect decoding with decode() by specifying the errors parameter. ... python3 >>> utf8_bytes = 'Père Noël'.encode('utf8') >>> print(utf8_bytes.decode('ascii')) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 1: ordinal not in range(128) >>> print(utf8_bytes.decode('ascii', errors='ignore')) Pre Nol >>> print(utf8_bytes.decode('ascii', errors='replace')) P��re No��l
Scaler
scaler.com › home › topics › encode() in python
encode() in Python | encode() Function in Python - Scaler Topics
March 30, 2022 - The code points are translated into a series of bytes to efficiently store such strings. This process is defined as encoding. Python uses utf-8 as its encoding by default. ... Both the parameters used in the encode() function are optional, and the encoding standard used for Python programming ...
Python Module of the Week
pymotw.com › 2 › codecs
codecs – String encoding and decoding - Python Module of the Week
$ python codecs_encode_error.py ignore File contents: 'pi: ' There are two lossless error handling options, both of which replace the character with an alternate representation defined by a standard separate from the encoding.
Tutorialspoint
tutorialspoint.com › python › string_encode.htm
Python String encode() Method
The default for errors is 'strict' which means that the encoding errors raise a UnicodeError. Other possible values are 'ignore', 'replace', 'xmlcharrefreplace', 'backslashreplace' and any other name registered via codecs.register_error(). The python string encode() method returns an encoded string.
DigitalOcean
digitalocean.com › community › tutorials › python-string-encode-decode
Python String Encode and Decode: Complete Guide | DigitalOcean
Master Python string encode() and decode() methods. Learn UTF-8, ASCII, Unicode handling, error handling modes, and practical encoding/decoding examples.
Honeybadger
honeybadger.io › blog › python-character-encoding
Python developer's guide to character encoding - Honeybadger Developer Blog
March 6, 2023 - You will need to translate these bytes into readable text. In this case, character encoding converts the character you select into the correct bytes in the computer’s memory before reading the bytes back into characters to show the text. As stated previously, Python 3 has two data types: strings and bytes.
AskPython
askpython.com › python › string › python-encode-and-decode-functions
Python encode() and decode() Functions - AskPython
February 16, 2023 - Python’s encode and decode methods are used to encode and decode the input string, using a given encoding.
Real Python
realpython.com › python-encodings-guide
Unicode & Character Encodings in Python: A Painless Guide – Real Python
May 20, 2019 - If you don’t see a character here, then you simply can’t express it as printed text under the ASCII encoding scheme. Click around the interactive table below to see any character’s decimal, hexadecimal, and 7-bit binary value, along with the ord() and chr() calls that convert between a character and its code point: Interactive diagram — enable JavaScript to view. ... Python’s string module is a convenient one-stop-shop for string constants that fall in ASCII’s character set.
Python Basics
python-basics-tutorial.readthedocs.io › en › latest › types › strings › encodings.html
Unicode and character encodings - Python Basics
Opt-in Opt-in EncodingWarning can be used to identify code that may be affected by this change. To keeep the previous behaviour, Python’s UTF-8 mode can be disabled with the environment variable PYTHONUTF8=0 or the command line option -X utf8=0.
Python Morsels
pythonmorsels.com › unicode-character-encodings-in-python
Unicode character encodings - Python Morsels
May 2, 2022 - But if you have bytes that represent data in a different character encoding, you'll need to specify that character encoding instead: >>> data = b"H\x00e\x00l\x00l\x00o\x00 \x00t\x00h\x00e\x00r\x00e\x00!\x00 \x00('" >>> data.decode("utf-16le") 'Hello there! ✨' When you open a file in Python, whether for writing or for reading, it's considered a best practice to specify the character encoding that you're working with:
Python Central
pythoncentral.io › encoding-and-decoding-strings-in-python-3-x
Encoding and Decoding Strings (in Python 3.x) | Python Central
December 29, 2021 - As we can see, we need to include an encoding with the string. Let's use a common one, the UTF-8 encoding: [python] >>> bytes(nonlat, 'utf-8') b'\xe5\xad\x97' [/python]