Python - Display string containing entity references as normal text

Question

I have a Python string "''Grassmere''" as retrieved from a website.

I would like to have the ' displayed as the correct ascii symbol (') but for some reason python insists on just printing the ascii code.

Answer 1

Batteries are included for this one

>>> import xmllib
>>> X=xmllib.XMLParser()
>>> X.translate_references("''Grassmere''")
"''Grassmere''"

Answer 2

Or without additional modules:

re.sub("&#(\d+);", lambda m: chr(int(m.group(1))), "''Grassmere''")