[FIXED] How to find unicode characters by their descriptive names?

Issue

Trying to get a unicode character by the (unique) name in python 2.7. The method I've found in the docs is not working for me:

>>> import unicodedata
>>> print unicodedata.lookup('PILE OF POO')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
KeyError: "undefined character name 'PILE OF POO'"

Solution

The problem is, that PILE OF POO was introduced with Unicode 6. However, the data of unicodedata is mostly older, 5.X versions or so. The docs say:

The module uses the same names and symbols as defined by the UnicodeData File Format 5.2.0 (see http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/tr44-4.html).

This means, unfortunately, that you also are out of luck with almost all Emoji and hieroglyphs (if you're into egyptology).

Answered By - Boldewyn