Python3.3 str() bug?

[Stefan Behnel]

Helmut Jarausch, 09.11.2012 10:18:
> probably I'm missing something.
> 
> Using   str(Arg) works just fine if  Arg is a list.
> But
>   str([],encoding='latin-1')
> 
> gives the error
> TypeError: coercing to str: need bytes, bytearray or buffer-like object, 
>            list found
> 
> If this isn't a bug how can I use str(Arg,encoding='latin-1') in general.
> Do I need to flatten any data structure which is normally excepted by str() ?

Funny idea to call this a bug in Python. What your code is asking for is to
decode the object you pass in using the "latin-1" encoding. Since a list is
not something that is "encoded", let alone in latin-1, you get an error,
and actually a rather clear one.

Note that this is not specific to Python3.3 or even 3.x. It's the same
thing in Py2 when you call the equivalent unicode() function.

Stefan