Python3 interpret unicode literal string as unicode character

Question

Now I have some unicode literal string like "\\u0061" which is by default interpreted as 6 unicode character. How can I convert it into unicode character 'a' ?.

Answer 1

You're looking for the unicode-escape codec:

>>> import codecs
>>> print(r'\u2603')
\u2603
>>> print(codecs.decode(r'\u2603', 'unicode-escape'))
☃

Answer 2

Even easier:

>>> "\\u0061".encode().decode('unicode-escape')
'a'
>>>