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I would like to find a note over IMAP using Python3 and it's IMAP extension. I try to search for a subject which contains special chars as in the example below. Is there a way I can encode the search string to be IMAP compatible?

self.connection.search(None, 'ALL', 'SUBJECT "büro"')

returns

UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character '\xfc' in position 10: ordinal not in range(128)
Robin Meis
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2 Answers2

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You should pass UTF-8 encoded string as the search argument and also need to mention "CHARSET UTF-8" in the search query.

some thing like this UID SEARCH CHARSET utf-8 "search string". Here "search string" should be utf-8 encoded.

user1370351
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  • `search('UTF-8', 'SUBJECT', subject.encode())` should probably work on most servers, however it's technically against specification because it includes 8-bit characters that are not in a literal, unless the server also supports `UTF8=ACCEPT` capability. – Max Feb 09 '15 at 19:36
  • If you're using UIDs, you will need uid('SEARCH', 'CHARSET UTF-8', subject.encode())) – Max Feb 09 '15 at 19:49
  • Yes. Infact this logic works only for IMAP servers which supports UTF8=ACCEPT, You need to build this logic based on IMAP capabulity which supports UTF8=ACCEPT. – Subbi Reddy K Feb 11 '15 at 05:31
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If there are special characters in search string, than literal must be used according to https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3501#page-54. Python imaplib does not do it for search command. So need to use workaround:

    imap.literal = subject.encode('UTF-8')
    status, data = imap.uid('SEARCH', 'CHARSET UTF-8 SUBJECT')
    # fetch is also must be used via uid command after this

without uid version:

    imap.literal = subject.encode('UTF-8')
    typ, dat = imap._simple_command('SEARCH', "CHARSET UTF-8 SUBJECT")
    status, data = imap._untagged_response(typ, dat, 'SEARCH')
Community
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Sergey
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