What's the Significance of the 'u' Prefix in Python Strings?

Unicode String Prefixes in Python

In Python strings, you may encounter the prefix "u" prepended to a string literal. As you rightly guessed, this prefix denotes "Unicode".

Availability of Unicode Strings

The "u" prefix has been available since Python 2.0. In Python 2, it was used to explicitly indicate that the string contained Unicode characters. This was necessary because Python 2 supported both Unicode and ASCII strings, and the prefix helped disambiguate between the two.

Changes in Python 3

In Python 3, Unicode strings became the default, making the "u" prefix redundant. Consequently, Python 3.0 through 3.2 removed them. However, to maintain compatibility with Python 2 and ease the transition to Python 3, the "u" prefix was re-added in Python 3.3 .

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