Can't decode byte list to string list - json

Question

In my users variable i store a byte list that i get from a local ldap and convert to a string list with my for loop.
I must return this list as jsonify.
If i don't use that encoding key i get a different output from the original but still encoded.
The problem is i can't access the decode method anywhere.
Any help?
users = ldap.get_group_members('ship_crew')
user_list = []
for user in users:
user_list.append((str(user, encoding='utf-8').split(",")[0].split("=")[1]))
return jsonify(user_list)
original list from users variable:
[
"cn=Philip J. Fry,ou=people,dc=planetexpress,dc=com",
"cn=Turanga Leela,ou=people,dc=planetexpress,dc=com",
"cn=Bender Bending Rodr\u00edguez,ou=people,dc=planetexpress,dc=com"
]
for loop with encoded output:
[
"Philip J. Fry",
"Turanga Leela",
"Bender Bending Rodr\u00edguez"
]
expected:
[
"Philip J. Fry",
"Turanga Leela",
"Bender Bending Rodríguez"
]

Answer 1

I Would use regex to extract your names:
import re
l = [
"cn=Philip J. Fry,ou=people,dc=planetexpress,dc=com",
"cn=Turanga Leela,ou=people,dc=planetexpress,dc=com",
"cn=Bender Bending Rodr\u00edguez,ou=people,dc=planetexpress,dc=com"
]
NAME_PATTERN = re.compile(r'cn=(.*?),')
result = [NAME_PATTERN.match(s).group(1) for s in l]
print(result)
Output:
['Philip J. Fry', 'Turanga Leela', 'Bender Bending Rodríguez']
Note that when you dump it to JSON the í isn't supported since by default it tries converting to ASCII so it dumps it to UTF-16 (Unicode 0x00ED):
import json
print(json.dumps(result, indent=2))
Output:
[
"Philip J. Fry",
"Turanga Leela",
"Bender Bending Rodr\u00edguez"
]
You can get around this via setting ensure_ascii=False if you want, though if you are using this in an API I would be careful and stick with ASCII with unicode encodings:
print(json.dumps(result, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False))
Output:
[
"Philip J. Fry",
"Turanga Leela",
"Bender Bending Rodríguez"
]

Answer 2

Your output is correct JSON. Unicode code point 00ED is í, and in JSON any character can be escaped using its Unicode code point. "\00ed" as in your JSON output is a valid way to write that character.
It would also be correct JSON to have that character without encoding it, but apparently jsonify chooses to encode it.
Any competent JSON decoder will then turn it back into a í.
If using the standard library's json.dumps you can use ensure_ascii=False to prevent this behaviour if you don't want it, but I don't know what "jsonify" is.