What is the difference between u' ' prefix and unicode() in python?

Question

What is the difference between u\'\' prefix and unicode()?

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
print u\'上午\'  # this works
print unicode(\'上午\'         


        

Answer 1

Unicode is an object type whereas 'u' is a literal used to denote that object is unicode object. It is similar to 'L' literal used to denote long int.