unicode

Links

Unicode In Python, Completely Demystified

Decode

Decode to type unicode ASAP (the above article advises to decode early):

def to_unicode_or_bust(obj, encoding='utf-8'):
    if isinstance(obj, basestring):
        if not isinstance(obj, unicode):
            obj = unicode(obj, encoding)
    return obj

Encode

Encode to type str when you write to disk or print (the above article, advises to encode late):

>>> f = open('/tmp/ivan_out.txt','w')
>>> f.write(ivan_uni.encode('utf-8'))
>>> f.close()

Script

Add the following to the first or second line of your script (http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0263/):

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-