Python: raw_input should be converted to unicode

Question

I get the users Input with raw_input(). This Input is stored in a variable. How can I cast this variable to be Unicode. I Need this for further executions.

 userinput = raw_input("Hello. What is your Name?")

Answer 1

Jst call the "decode" method on the result of "raw_input". Matter is, you need to know the encoding of the terminal where the input was made:

import sys

value = raw_input("bla bla bla").decode(sys.stdin.encoding or 'utf-8')

But yu really should use Python 3