datauri is a small Python library implementing the data: uri scheme defined in RFC2397. The generic format is:

data:[<mediatype>][;base64],<data>

Install datauri from PyPI using:

pip install datauri

Note: this library is for Python 3 only.

>>> import datauri

To parse a string containing a data: uri, use parse():

>>> parsed = datauri.parse('data:text/plain,A%20brief%20note')

This returns a parse result:

>>> parsed.media_type
'text/plain'
>>> parsed.data
b'A brief note'
>>> parsed.uri
'data:text/plain,A%20brief%20note'

This is a simple container class with a few attributes:

• The media_type attribute is a string (str) or None in case it was absent. Any (optional) embedded text encoding specifications are not processed in any way; it is up to the application to deal with that.
• The data attribute is a byte string (bytes) with the decoded data. URL encoding and base64 is handled transparently.
• For convenience, the uri attribute contains the input uri.

Parsed URIs compare equal if their media type and data are the same. Instances are hashable, so they can be used as dictionary keys.

Parsing failures will raise a DataURIError:

>>> datauri.parse('invalid')
Traceback (most recent call last):
…
datauri.DataURIError: invalid data uri

The DataURIError subclasses the built-in ValueError, so this will work as expected:

try:
    datauri.parse('invalid')
except ValueError:
    pass

In addition to parsing a string, this library can also discover (and directly parse) any data: URIs found in a larger string:

s = 'long string with data:text/plain,A%20brief%20note and more'
for parsed in datauri.discover(s):
    print(s)

• RFC2397: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2397
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_URI_scheme
• Mozilla developer documentation: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Basics_of_HTTP/Data_URIs

Currently, only parsing has been implemented.

Please use Github issues to report problems or propose improvements.

• 1.1.0 (2026-02-17)

  Support for current Python versions

• 1.0.0 (2017-10-05)

  Initial release

(This is the OSI approved 3-clause "New BSD License".)

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