Python 2 Unicode strings can be used as inputs to char * or std::string types

Requires SWIG_PYTHON_2_UNICODE to be defined when compiling generated code.

Examples/test-suite/python/unicode_strings_runme.py

@@ -12,3 +12,12 @@ if sys.version_info[0:2] >= (3, 1):
         raise ValueError('Test comparison mismatch')
     if unicode_strings.non_utf8_std_string() != test_string:
         raise ValueError('Test comparison mismatch')
+
+# Testing SWIG_PYTHON_2_UNICODE flag which allows unicode strings to be passed to C
+if sys.version_info[0:2] < (3, 0):
+    assert unicode_strings.charstring("hello1") == "hello1"
+    assert unicode_strings.charstring(str(u"hello2")) == "hello2"
+    assert unicode_strings.charstring(u"hello3") == "hello3"
+    assert unicode_strings.charstring(unicode("hello4")) == "hello4"
+    unicode_strings.charstring(u"hell\xb05")
+    unicode_strings.charstring(u"hell\u00f66")

Examples/test-suite/unicode_strings.i

@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 %include <std_string.i>
 
+%begin %{
+#define SWIG_PYTHON_2_UNICODE
+%}
+
 %inline %{
 
 const char* non_utf8_c_str(void) {
@@ -12,4 +16,8 @@ std::string non_utf8_std_string(void) {
         return std::string("h\xe9llo w\xc3\xb6rld");
 }
 
+char *charstring(char *s) {
+  return s;
+}
+
 %}