Strip unicode from Python 2 Dictionary

strip_unicode_from_dict.py

# Strip out the unicode keys from a Python 2 dictionary (also includes nested Lists, Dicts, and Sets):
def py2_strip_unicode_keys(blob):
    """For Python 2 Only -- this will convert unicode keys in nested dictionaries to standard strings."""
    if type(blob) == unicode:
        return str(blob)

    elif type(blob) == dict:
        for key in list(blob.keys()):
            value = blob.pop(key)
            blob[str(key)] = py2_strip_unicode_keys(value)

    elif type(blob) == list:
        for i in range(0, len(blob)):
            blob[i] = py2_strip_unicode_keys(blob[i])

    elif type(blob) == set:
        new_set = set()
        for value in blob:
            new_set.add(py2_strip_unicode_keys(value))

        blob = new_set

    return blob
  
bad_dict = {
    u'some': u'value',
    u'a': {
        u'nested': [
            u'List',
            u'of',
            {
                u'unicode': u'values'
            }
        ]
    },
    u'and a': {
        u'nested',
        u'set',
        u'of',
        5,
        u'values'
    }
}

value = py2_strip_unicode_keys(bad_dict)
# value will equal {'a': {'nested': ['List', 'of', {'unicode': 'values'}]}, 'some': 'value', 'and a': set(['of', 'set', 'values', 5, 'nested'])}