Best output type and encoding practices for __repr__() functions?

Question

Lately, I\'ve had lots of trouble with __repr__(), format(), and encodings. Should the output of __repr__() be encoded or be

Answer 1

I use a function like the following:

def stdout_encode(u, default='UTF8'):
    if sys.stdout.encoding:
        return u.encode(sys.stdout.encoding)
    return u.encode(default)

Then my __repr__ functions look like this:

def __repr__(self):
    return stdout_encode(u''.format(self.abcd, self.efgh))