Synnefo

def udec(thing, encoding=None):

    """Decode the argument into a unicode object.

    If the thing is already a unicode object, nothing happens to it.

    If it is a string object, it is decoded into a unicode object as

    specified by the encoding argument.

    If the thing is another type of object, str() is called on it.

    If the encoding argument is not specified, the module's default

    is used instead. See uenc_set_encoding() for setting the default.

    """

    if encoding is None:

        encoding = uenc_encoding

    if isinstance(thing, unicode):

        return thing

    try:

        return thing.decode(encoding)

    except UnicodeDecodeError:

        return repr(thing.decode('ISO-8859-1'))