Printing Unicode strings in a list

[Stephen Tucker]

To Cameron Simpson,

Thanks for your in-depth and helpful reply. I have noted it and will be
giving it close attention when I can.

The main reason why I am still using Python 2.x is that my colleagues are
still using a GIS system that has a Python programmer's interface - and
that interface uses Python 2.x.

The team are moving to an updated version of the system whose Python
interface is Python 3.x.

However, I am expecting to retire over the next 8 months or so, so I do not
need to be concerned with Python 3.x - my successor will be doing that.

Stephen.


On Thu, Apr 28, 2022 at 2:07 PM Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au> wrote:

> On 28Apr2022 12:32, Stephen Tucker <stephen_tucker at sil.org> wrote:
> >Consider the following log from a run of IDLE:
> >==================
> >
> >Python 2.7.10 (default, May 23 2015, 09:40:32) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)]
> >on win32
> >Type "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.
> >>>> print (u"\u2551")
> >║
> >>>> print ([u"\u2551"])
> >[u'\u2551']
> >>>>
> >==================
> >
> >Yes, I am still using Python 2.x - I have good reasons for doing so and
> >will be moving to Python 3.x in due course.
>
> Love to hear those reasons. Not suggesting that they are invalid.
>
> >I have the following questions arising from the log:
> >1. Why does the second print statement not produce [ ║]  or ["║"] ?
>
> Because print() prints the str() or each of its arguments, and str() of
> a list if the same as its repr(), which is a list of the repr()s of
> every item in the list. Repr of a Unicode string looks like what you
> have in Python 2.
>
> >2. Should the second print statement produce [ ║]  or ["║"] ?
>
> Well, to me its behaviour is correct. Do you _want_ to get your Unicode
> glyph? in quotes? That is up to you. But consider: what would be sane
> output if the list contained the string "], [3," ?
>
> >3. Given that I want to print a list of Unicode strings so that their
> >characters are displayed (instead of their Unicode codepoint definitions),
> >is there a more Pythonic way of doing it than concatenating them into a
> >single string and printing that?
>
> You could print them with empty separators:
>
>     print(s1, s2, ......, sep='')
>
> To do that in Python 2 you need to:
>
>     from __future__ import print_function
>
> at the top of your Python file. Then you've have a Python 3 string print
> function. In Python 2, pint is normally a statement and you don't need
> the brackets:
>
>     print u"\u2551"
>
> but print() is genuinely better as a function anyway.
>
> >4. Does Python 3.x exhibit the same behaviour as Python 2.x in this
> respect?
>
> Broadly yes, except that all strings are Unicode strings and we don't
> bothing with the leading "u" prefix.
>
> Cheers,
> Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au>
> --
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>