If you have a string as below, with unicode chars, you can print it, and get the unescaped version:
>>> s = \"äåö\"
>>> s
\'\\xc3\\xa4\\xc3
One can use this wrapper class:
#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
class ReprToStrString(str):
def __repr__(self):
return "'" + self.__str__() + "'"
class ReprToStr(object):
def __init__(self, printable):
if isinstance(printable, str):
self._printable = ReprToStrString(printable)
elif isinstance(printable, list):
self._printable = list([ReprToStr(item) for item in printable])
elif isinstance(printable, dict):
self._printable = dict(
[(ReprToStr(key), ReprToStr(value)) for (key, value) in printable.items()])
else:
self._printable = printable
def __repr__(self):
return self._printable.__repr__()
russian1 = ['Валенки', 'Матрёшка']
print russian1
# Output:
# ['\xd0\x92\xd0\xb0\xd0\xbb\xd0\xb5\xd0\xbd\xd0\xba\xd0\xb8', '\xd0\x9c\xd0\xb0\xd1\x82\xd1\x80\xd1\x91\xd1\x88\xd0\xba\xd0\xb0']
print ReprToStr(russian1)
# Output:
# ['Валенки', 'Матрёшка']
russian2 = {'Валенки': 145, 'Матрёшка': 100500}
print russian2
# Output:
# {'\xd0\x92\xd0\xb0\xd0\xbb\xd0\xb5\xd0\xbd\xd0\xba\xd0\xb8': 145, '\xd0\x9c\xd0\xb0\xd1\x82\xd1\x80\xd1\x91\xd1\x88\xd0\xba\xd0\xb0': 100500}
print ReprToStr(russian2)
# Output:
# {'Матрёшка': 100500, 'Валенки': 145}