title: how to convert from unicode to utf8 in python?
body: <p>I'm working on my python script to extract the data from sqlite3 database for xbmc media application.</p>
  
  <p>I can see that in my code it will extract the data using the unicode object where I will have the strings <code>(u'</code>, <code>u</code> and <code>L</code>.</p>
  
  <p>I want to convert it back to normal strings from unicode object to utf8.</p>
  
  <p>Here is the code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>programs = None
  daysLimit = 14
  start = datetime.datetime.now()
  end = start + datetime.timedelta(days = daysLimit)
  cur.execute('SELECT channel, title, start_date, stop_date FROM programs WHERE channel')
  programs = cur.fetchall()
  
  print(programs)
  cur.close()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Here is the xbmc log:</p>
  
  <pre><code>03:49:03 T:3628  NOTICE: [(u'101 ABC FAMILY ', u'The Middle -  The Ditch',
  20140520170000L, 20140520173000L), (u'101 ABC FAMILY ', u'The Goonies', 
  20140520173000L, 20140520200000L), (u'101 ABC FAMILY ', u'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides', 
  20140520200000L, 20140520230000L), (u'101 ABC FAMILY ', u'The 700 Club', 
  20140520230000L, 20140521000000L), (u'101 ABC FAMILY ', u'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air -  Day Damn One', 
  20140521000000L, 20140521003000L), (u'101 ABC FAMILY ', u'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air -  Lucky Charm', 
  20140521003000L, 20140521010000L), (u'101 ABC FAMILY ', u'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air -  The Ethnic Tip', 
  20140521010000L, 20140521013000L), (u'101 ABC FAMILY ', u'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air -  The Young and the Restless', 
  20140521013000L, 20140521020000L), (u'101 ABC FAMILY ', u'Summer Sexy With T25!', 
  20140521020000L, 20140521023000L), (u'101 ABC FAMILY ', u'Paid Programming', 
  20140521023000L, 20140521030000L)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to ignore the strings <code>(u'</code>, <code>u</code> and <code>L</code> so I want to make it look like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>'101 ABC FAMILY ', 'The Middle -  The Ditch', 20140520170000, 20140520173000, 
  '101 ABC FAMILY ', 'The Goonies', 20140520173000, 20140520200000, 
  '101 ABC FAMILY ', 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides', 20140520200000, 20140520230000, 
  '101 ABC FAMILY ', 'The 700 Club', 20140520230000, 20140521000000, 
  '101 ABC FAMILY ', 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air -  Day Damn One', 20140521000000, 20140521003000,
  and so on...
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Can you please tell me how i can convert from unicode object to utf8 using python 2.6 version?</p>