How can I identify invisible characters in python strings?

Question

SHORT VERSION

I am retrieving a database value, which contains a short, but full HTML structure. I want to strip away all of the HTML-tags, and just end

Answer 1

To view the contents of a string (including it's "hidden" values) you can always do:

print( [data] )
# or
print( repr(data) )

If you're in a system which you described in the comments you can also do:

with open('/var/log/debug.log', 'w') as fh:
    fh.write( str( [data] ) )

This will however just give you a general idea of what your data looks like, but if that solves your question or problem then that is great. If you need further assistance, edit your question or submit a new one :)