How to convert octal escape sequences with Python [duplicate]

Question

I extract javascript code from PDF, but it is converted octal escape sequences.

I want to convert it to normal JavaScript code.

\040\040\040\040\146\165\156\143\164\151\157\156\040\163\167\050\051\17....

Please advise me.

Answer 1

You can use unicode_escape encoding:

In Python 2.x:

>>> r'\040\040\040\040\146\165\156\143\164\151\157\156'.decode('unicode-escape')
u'    function'

In Python 3.x:

>>> br'\040\040\040\040\146\165\156\143\164\151\157\156'.decode('unicode-escape')
'    function'

Answer 2

This works for both Python 2.x and 3.x:

>>> b'\040\040\040\040\146\165\156\143\164\151\157\156\040\163\167'.decode('utf-8')
'    function sw'