"convert" string to bytes without changing data (encoding)

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:43:52 +0200, Peter Daum wrote:

> ... in my example, the variable s points to a "string", i.e. a series of
> bytes, (0x61,0x62 ...) interpreted as ascii/unicode characters.

No. Strings are not sequences of bytes (except in the trivial sense that 
everything in computer memory is made of bytes). They are sequences of 
CODE POINTS. (Roughly speaking, code points are *almost* but not quite 
the same as characters.)

I suggest that you need to reset your understanding of strings and bytes. 
I suggest you start by reading this:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html

Then come back and try to explain what actual problem you are trying to 
solve.


-- 
Steven