Python: Using .format() on a Unicode-escaped string

Question

I am using Python 2.6.5. My code requires the use of the "more than or equal to" sign. Here it goes:

>>> s = u'\u2265'
>>> print s
>>> ≥
>>> print "{0}".format(s)
Traceback (most recent call last):
     File "<input>", line 1, in <module> 
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\u2265'
  in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)`  

Why do I get this error? Is there a right way to do this? I need to use the .format() function.

Answer 1

Just make the second string also a unicode string

>>> s = u'\u2265'
>>> print s
≥
>>> print "{0}".format(s)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\u2265' in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)
>>> print u"{0}".format(s)
≥
>>>