Python: how to convert from Windows 1251 to Unicode?

Question

I'm trying to convert file content from Windows-1251 (Cyrillic) to Unicode with Python. I found this function, but it doesn't work.

#!/usr/bin/env python

import os
import sys
import shutil

def convert_to_utf8(filename):
# gather the encodings you think that the file may be
# encoded inside a tuple
encodings = ('windows-1253', 'iso-8859-7', 'macgreek')

# try to open the file and exit if some IOError occurs
try:
    f = open(filename, 'r').read()
except Exception:
    sys.exit(1)

# now start iterating in our encodings tuple and try to
# decode the file
for enc in encodings:
    try:
        # try to decode the file with the first encoding
        # from the tuple.
        # if it succeeds then it will reach break, so we
        # will be out of the loop (something we want on
        # success).
        # the data variable will hold our decoded text
        data = f.decode(enc)
        break
    except Exception:
        # if the first encoding fail, then with the continue
        # keyword will start again with the second encoding
        # from the tuple an so on.... until it succeeds.
        # if for some reason it reaches the last encoding of
        # our tuple without success, then exit the program.
        if enc == encodings[-1]:
            sys.exit(1)
        continue

# now get the absolute path of our filename and append .bak
# to the end of it (for our backup file)
fpath = os.path.abspath(filename)
newfilename = fpath + '.bak'
# and make our backup file with shutil
shutil.copy(filename, newfilename)

# and at last convert it to utf-8
f = open(filename, 'w')
try:
    f.write(data.encode('utf-8'))
except Exception, e:
    print e
finally:
    f.close()

How can I do that?

Thank you

Answer 1

import codecs

f = codecs.open(filename, 'r', 'cp1251')
u = f.read()   # now the contents have been transformed to a Unicode string
out = codecs.open(output, 'w', 'utf-8')
out.write(u)   # and now the contents have been output as UTF-8

Is this what you intend to do?