def get_unicode(input_text, encoding='utf-8'):
    """Get the unicode (str) representation of an object.

    :param input_text: The input text.
    :type input_text: unicode, str, float, int

    :param encoding: The encoding used to do the conversion, default to utf-8.
    :type encoding: str

    :returns: Unicode representation of the input.
    :rtype: str
    """
    if isinstance(input_text, str):
        return input_text
    return str(input_text, encoding, errors='ignore')