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Working with Python 2.7, I'm wondering what real advantage there is in using the type unicode instead of str, as both of them seem to be able to hold Unicode strings. Is there any special reason apart from being able to set Unicode codes in unicode strings using the escape char \?:
Executing a module with:
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
a = 'á'
ua = u'á'
print a, ua
Results in: á, á
More testing using Python shell:
>>> a = 'á'
>>> a
'\xc3\xa1'
>>> ua = u'á'
>>> ua
u'\xe1'
>>> ua.encode('utf8')
'\xc3\xa1'
>>> ua.encode('latin1')
'\xe1'
>>> ua
u'\xe1'
So, the unicode string seems to be encoded using latin1 instead of utf-8 and the raw string is encoded using utf-8? I'm even more confused now! :S