I’m working with an address string that looks like this:
789_MainStreet_Blvd_TownName_22222
I need to strip away the ending portion _Blvd_TownName_22222 from this string. My goal is to eliminate everything after the final 3 underscore characters.
I wrote this Python code to handle it:
result = "_".join(input['address_field'].split("_")[:-3])
However, when I execute this in Zapier, I encounter this error message:
Oops! Something went wrong with the Python code step. :-( Error:
'unicode' object has no attribute 'copy'
I’m not sure why this unicode error is happening. The code works fine when I test it locally, but fails inside the Zapier environment. Has anyone faced similar issues with string manipulation in Zapier’s Python code blocks? What could be causing this unicode attribute error?
that’s weird - this error usually pops up when zapier’s python version clashes with how it handles strings. try wrapping your input in str() first: result = "_".join(str(input['address_field']).split("_")[:-3]). zapier sometimes sends unicode objects that don’t behave like normal strings.
I’ve hit this exact problem with Zapier’s Python setup. Zapier runs an older Python version that handles unicode weirdly compared to current versions. Your code’s fine - it’s Zapier’s string handling that’s screwing things up. I fixed it by adding explicit encoding before manipulating the string: result = "_".join(unicode(input['address_field']).encode('utf-8').decode('utf-8').split("_")[:-3]). Another trick that works consistently: assign the input to a variable first, then process it: addr = input['address_field'] then result = "_".join(addr.split("_")[:-3]). The second method usually sidesteps whatever weird stuff Zapier does to the input object.
This unicode error happens because Zapier’s Python treats input data as unicode objects instead of regular strings. Your logic is fine - it’s just how Zapier handles things internally. I ran into the exact same issue with form data in my automations. What fixed it for me was converting to a standard string first before doing anything else. Try input['address_field'].__str__() instead of accessing it directly, or set up an intermediate variable like address_str = '%s' % input['address_field'] before you split it. The modulo formatting works better in Zapier’s older Python runtime than direct string casting.