python unicode support

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to use the unicode support in python; I would like to convert this string to unicode : "ABCDE" --> "\x00A\x00B\x00C\x00D\x00E"

Any built-in functionnality can do that, or shall i use join() ?

Thanks !

Answer 1

That's UTF-16BE, not Unicode.

>>> 'ABCDE'.decode('ascii').encode('utf-16be')
'\x00A\x00B\x00C\x00D\x00E'

• Chris Morgan: why would you put in the .decode('ascii') bit? It's implied by the .encode('utf-16be') ('\xff'.encode('utf-16be') will fail with an UnicodeDecodeError ascii codec error the same way as '\xff'.decode('ascii') will)
• Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams: @Chris: To make it explicit to the reader that it has to be decoded somehow.

Answer 2

The key to understanding unicode in python is that unicode means UNICODE. A unicode object is an idealized representation to the characters, not actual bytes.

Answer 3

the str object should be firstly converted to unicode object by decode method. then convert the unicode object to str object using encode method with character-encoding you want.