code: def to_unicode(value):
      """
      Converts a string argument to a unicode string.
      If the argument is already a unicode string or None, it is returned
      unchanged.  Otherwise it must be a byte string and is decoded as utf8.
      """
      try:
          if isinstance(value, (str, type(None))):
              return value
  
          if not isinstance(value, bytes):
              raise TypeError(
                  "Expected bytes, unicode, or None; got %r"
                  % type(value)
              )
  
          return value.decode("utf-8")
  
      except UnicodeDecodeError:
          return repr(value)
  
imports: import sys
  from nemo.constants import NEMO_ENV_VARNAME_ENABLE_COLORING
  from nemo.utils.env_var_parsing import get_envbool
label_desc: Use image node_id 2 for calling a global function with example usage: to_unicode(value) and returns: value, value, repr