[Python-Dev] unicode and str (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Mon Aug 30 22:57:36 CEST 2004

Neil Schemenauer wrote:

Also, I'm a little unclear on the purpose of the unicode method. If you can return unicode from str then why would I want to provide a unicode method? Perhaps it is meant for objects that can either return a unicode or a string representation depending on what the caller prefers. I have a hard time imagining a use for that.

It's what unicode() returns:

class A: ... def str(self):return "1" ... def unicode(self): return u"2" ... a=A() str(a) '1' unicode(a) u'2'

str() is guaranteed to return a byte string; unicode() is guaranteed to return a unicode string.

Regards, Martin

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