How to search unicode string in python

Question

I am searching some simple Cyrillic patterns in strings using python. The pattern I am using is like /[а-я]+/[а-я]+ . When I search pattern by this code

import re
re.search('/[а-я]+/[а-я]+', '/бцршб/бйцбйц')

It cannot find anything. But when I write it like this.

import re
re.search(u'/[а-я]+/[а-я]+', u'/бцршб/бйцбйц')

It works. However in my case, the pattern and text are predefined in Database, so I couldn't find a way to convert them to the Unicode string. What is the solution in this case. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Thank you guys. It works when decoding strings. So the code is like:

import re 
pattern = '/[а-я]+/[а-я]+'.decode('utf-8') 
text = '/йцбйц/бйцбц'.decode('utf-8') 
re.search(pattern, text)