title: Translate special character ½
body: <p>I am reading a source that contains the special character <code>½</code>. How do I convert this to <code>1/2</code>? The character is part of a sentence and I still need to be able to use this string "normally". I am reading webpage sources, so I'm not sure that I will always know the encoding??</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit:</strong> I have tried looking at other answers, but they don't work for me. They always seem to start with something like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>s= u'£10"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but I get an error already there: "no encoding declared". But do I know what encoding I'm getting in, or does that not matter? Do I just pick one?</p>