New submission from Raymond Hettinger <raymond.hettinger@gmail.com>: The "encoding" parameter is documented to default to sys.getdefaultencoding(). That may be true but there doesn't seem to be a way to use that default because objects will all have a __str__ or __repr__ that will be run instead. -------------------------------------------

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import sys sys.getdefaultencoding() # Default encoding is utf-8 'utf-8' buffer = b'lim x \xe2\x9f\xb6 \xe2\x88\x9e, 1/sin\xc2\xb2(x)' str(buffer, 'utf-8') # Explicit argument decodes properly 'lim x ⟶ ∞, 1/sin²(x)' str(buffer) # Despite the default, repr is shown "b'lim x \\xe2\\x9f\\xb6 \\xe2\\x88\\x9e, 1/sin\\xc2\\xb2(x)'"

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print(str.__doc__) str(object='') -> str str(bytes_or_buffer[, encoding[, errors]]) -> str

Create a new string object from the given object. If encoding or errors is specified, then the object must expose a data buffer that will be decoded using the given encoding and error handler. Otherwise, returns the result of object.__str__() (if defined) or repr(object). encoding defaults to sys.getdefaultencoding(). errors defaults to 'strict'. ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 330454 nosy: docs@python, rhettinger priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: Check accuracy of str() doc string for its encoding argument versions: Python 3.6, Python 3.7, Python 3.8 _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue35318> _______________________________________