Unicode string index problem

[luoheng]

Hey, guys. I met a problem when indexing a unicode string.
Here is the code:

>>> string = "ábcdefg"
>>> string[0]
a

The index result is a, but I hope it is á. It seems the string index is based on unicode scalar rather than extended grapheme cluster.
Is there any way for me to get the real character á, or in other words, can I visit string in human readable pattern ?

[Larz60+]

string[0] is a, not á

[Gribouillis]

Indeed, in this string string[0] is a and string[1] is unicode U+0301 COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT. This string is different from

>>> t = "\u00E1bcdefg"
>>> t
'ábcdefg'
>>> t[0]
'á'
>>> ord(t[0])
225

where t[0] is U+00E1, LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH ACUTE

[luoheng]

Indeed, in this string string[0] is a and string[1] is unicode U+0301 COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT. This string is different from

 >>> t = "\u00E1bcdefg" >>> t 'ábcdefg' >>> t[0] 'á' >>> ord(t[0]) 225 

where t[0] is U+00E1, LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH ACUTE

Here is another try with your example:

string2 = "ábcdefg"  # this is mine
string = "ábcdefg"   # this is yours
print(string[0], string2[0])
# output
á a

This is really strange, they look same, but they are not equal. How to distinguish these two strings ?

[Larz60+]

How do you say they look the same?
they don't

[Gribouillis]

How to distinguish these two strings ?

You cannot distinguish them visually but the two arrays of unicode characters are different. Your string has 8 characters instead of 7 and the two first characters are different.

[luoheng]

How do you say they look the same? they don't

I can't find any difference...
They are equal in swift language, because swift regards they look same.