Best way to convert string a to utf-*

[Oliver Kurz]

Hello,

could someone tell me the best way to convert a string to utf, for example
to utf-8?

The problem: I have no controll about the source where the string comes
from. It could have any possible characterset. And I have to convert it for
example to utf-8.

Is there a good way to do this? And when, how?

Is there a function which tell me, what is the characterset of the string at
the moment?

Would be create, when someone could help me!

cu
Oliver

[Erik Max Francis]

Oliver Kurz wrote:

could someone tell me the best way to convert a string to utf, for
example
to utf-8?

The problem: I have no controll about the source where the string
comes
from. It could have any possible characterset. And I have to convert
it for
example to utf-8.

If the format is not already a Unicode string, you really can't know
what encoding it's in. To convert it to UTF-8 (or UTF-16 or UTF-32),
you really must know what format it's in to begin with or otherwise
you're stuck.

--
__ Erik Max Francis && ma*@alcyone.com && http://www.alcyone.com/max/
/ \ San Jose, CA, USA && 37 20 N 121 53 W && &tSftDotIotE
\__/ He who conceals his disease cannot expect to be cured.
-- (an Ethiopian proverb)

[Josiah Carlson]

s = u"some unicode string"
utf_8_encoded = s.encode('utf-8')

Is this what you were looking for?

- Josiah