How to Convert String to Unicode in Python

1. Convert Strings to Unicode in Python 2
2. Convert Strings to Unicode Format in Python 3

This tutorial will discuss converting regular strings into Unicode strings in Python.

Convert Strings to Unicode in Python 2

In Python 2, regular strings are known as byte strings and we can use the built-in unicode() function to convert these byte strings into a Unicode string. This code snippet shows us how we can convert a regular string into a Unicode string in Python 2.

regular = "regular string"
unicode_string = unicode(regular, "utf-8")
print(type(regular))
print(type(unicode_string))

Output:

<type 'str'>
<type 'unicode'>

We converted the regular byte string into a Unicode string with the unicode() function in Python 2.

Convert Strings to Unicode Format in Python 3

In Python 3, strings are Unicode strings by default and there’s no method for us to convert a regular string into a Unicode string. Hence, the following code gives different results on Python 2 and Python 3.

regular = "regular string"
unicode_string = u"Unicode string"
print(type(regular))
print(type(unicode_string))

Python 2 Output:

<type 'str'>
<type 'unicode'>

Python 3 Output:

<class 'str'>
<class 'str'>

In the code above, we initialize a Unicode string in both Python 2 and Python 3. In Python 2, the string belongs to the class unicode because there’s a difference between regular strings and Unicode strings, whereas, in Python 3, the string belongs to the class str. After all, Unicode strings are the same as regular strings.