[Python-Dev] unicode and __str__

[Neil Schemenauer]

On Mon, Aug 30, 2004 at 10:57:36PM +0200, "Martin v. L?wis" wrote:
> It's what unicode() returns:

But unicode() will also return __str__, eg.

    >>> class A:
    ...   def __str__(self): 
    ...     return u'\u1234'
    ... 
    >>> unicode(A())
    u'\u1234'

Why would I want to use __unicode__?  Shouldn't we be heading to a
world where __str__ always returns unicode objects?

Now, say your class stores unicode character data.  You could have
__unicode__ return a unicode object and have __str__ encode it
somehow and return a str.  However, that seems like a horrible
design to me.  The class can't know what kind of encoding the caller
expects.

  Neil