Python __str__ versus __unicode__

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__str__() is the old method — it returns bytes. __unicode__() is the new, preferred method — it returns characters. The names are a bit confusing, but in 2.x we’re stuck with them for compatibility reasons. Generally, you should put all your string formatting in __unicode__(), and create a stub __str__() method:

def __str__(self):
    return unicode(self).encode('utf-8')

In 3.0, str contains characters, so the same methods are named __bytes__() and __str__(). These behave as expected.

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