pulled from django

Python force_unicode

def force_unicode(s, encoding='utf-8', errors='ignore'):
    """
    Returns a unicode object representing 's'. Treats bytestrings using the
    'encoding' codec.
    """
    import codecs
    if s is None:
      return ''
 
    try:
        if not isinstance(s, basestring,):
            if hasattr(s, '__unicode__'):
                s = unicode(s)
            else:
                try:
                    s = unicode(str(s), encoding, errors)
                except UnicodeEncodeError:
                    if not isinstance(s, Exception):
                        raise
                    # If we get to here, the caller has passed in an Exception
                    # subclass populated with non-ASCII data without special
                    # handling to display as a string. We need to handle this
                    # without raising a further exception. We do an
                    # approximation to what the Exception's standard str()
                    # output should be.
                    s = ' '.join([force_unicode(arg, encoding, errors) for arg in s])
        elif not isinstance(s, unicode):
            # Note: We use .decode() here, instead of unicode(s, encoding,
            # errors), so that if s is a SafeString, it ends up being a
            # SafeUnicode at the end.
            s = s.decode(encoding, errors)
    except UnicodeDecodeError, e:
        if not isinstance(s, Exception):
            raise UnicodeDecodeError (s, *e.args)
        else:
            # If we get to here, the caller has passed in an Exception
            # subclass populated with non-ASCII bytestring data without a
            # working unicode method. Try to handle this without raising a
            # further exception by individually forcing the exception args
            # to unicode.
            s = ' '.join([force_unicode(arg, encoding, errors) for arg in s])
    return s


# from http://www.codigomanso.com/en/2010/05/una-de-python-force_unicode/