fdb Exception: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte

Question

I'm writing a small Python application that reads data from a Firebird database.
I'm using fdb 1.8 and Firebird Embedded 2.5.

I'm not able to decode the following string:

//centrale/Danea Easyfatt/ANYMA 2017 dal 06-02-17.eft

I keep getting this Exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "C:\Matteo\PyCharm\CMakeR\God.py", line 165, in openDBFromMenu
        self.openDB(False)
      File "C:\Matteo\PyCharm\CMakeR\God.py", line 147, in openDB
        while (self.dbManager.connectTo(path)==False):
      File "C:\Matteo\PyCharm\CMakeR\DBManager.py", line 36, in connectTo
        charset="WIN1252"
      File "C:\Matteo\PyCharm\CMakeR\venv\lib\site-packages\fdb\fbcore.py", line 736, in connect
        "Error while connecting to database:")
      File "C:\Matteo\PyCharm\CMakeR\venv\lib\site-packages\fdb\fbcore.py", line 562, in exception_from_status
        msglist.append('- ' + (msg.value).decode('utf_8'))
    UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xe8 in position 38: invalid continuation byte

What should I do?
I've already tried decoding and encoding in WIN1252 and other formats.
I'm scratching my head.

Answer 1

You need to set charset in connection to database.

For example, using fdb package you need to set charset parameter:

import fdb
con = fdb.connect(
dsn='bison:/temp/test.db',
user='sysdba', password='pass',
charset='WIN1251' # specify a correct character set for the connection

)

Using sqlalchemy you can set it in database_uri:

from sqlalchemy import create_engine
firebird = create_engine("firebird+fdb://%(user)s:%(pwd)s@%(host)s:%(port)/%(path)s?charset=%(charset)s"