code: def cast_unicode(s: str | bytes, encoding: str = "utf-8") -> str:
      if isinstance(s, bytes):
          return s.decode(encoding, "replace")
      return s
  
imports: from __future__ import annotations
  import os
  import pathlib
  from typing import Sequence
label_desc: Use image node_id 1 for calling a global function with example usage: cast_unicode(s, encoding) and returns: s, s