Convert Python's internal str to print equivalent
Question: Currently I have:

    
    
     >> class_name = 'AEROSPC\xc2\xa01A'
     >> print(class)
     >> AEROSPC 1A
     >> 'AEROSPC 1A' == class_name
     >> False
    

How can I convert `class_name` into 'AEROSPC 1A'? Thanks!


Answer: ## Convert to Unicode

You get interesting errors when converting that, I first converted to utf8:

    
    
    my_utf8 = 'AEROSPC\xc2\xa01A'.decode('utf8', 'ignore')
    my_utf8
    

returns:

    
    
    u'AEROSPC\xa01A'
    

and then I normalize the string, the \xa0 is a non-breaking space.

    
    
    import unicodedata
    
    my_normed_utf8 = unicodedata.normalize('NFKC', my_utf8)
    print my_normed_utf8
    

prints:

    
    
    AEROSPC 1A
    

## Convert back to String

which I can then convert back to an ASCII string:

    
    
    my_str = str(my_normed_utf8)
    print my_str
    

prints:

    
    
    AEROSPC 1A
    

