My code includes
from __future__ import unicode_literals
and has many functions that accept (and expect) Unicode strings as input in order to function fully.
Is there a way to ensure that users (in scripts, Python, or IPython, etc.) also use Unicode literals so that, for example
my_func("AβC")
does not cause an error ("ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xce ...") and so that
my_func(u"AβC")
is not necessary?
No, unicode_literals is a per-module configuration and must be imported in each and every module where it is to be used.
The best way is just to mention it in the docstring of my_func that you are expecting unicode objects.
If you insist, you could enforce it to fail early:
def my_func(my_arg):
if not isinstance(my_arg, unicode):
raise Exception('This function only handles unicode inputs')
If you need it in many places, it might be nicer to implement it with a decorator.
On python3.5 or up, you could use type hints to enforce this.
