title: Python : IF ELSE both getting executed
body: <p>I am extracting a JSON response and storing its data into a python list. Some of the fields in response is in 'unicode' format so I am converting it into 'utf-8' format before storing it into list. Now the problem is, some unicode fields are returning 'NoneType' which can not be encoded OR operated in any case. So I have written an IF ELSE block checking first whether it is 'None' or not. But I assume it is not working as expected. Below is my code :</p>
  
  <pre><code>res = []
  for a in response['Data'] : 
  
      res.append(a ['Id']['Id']) #ParticipatingIndividualId
      res.append(a ['UserId']) #UserId
      res.append(a ['DisplayName']) # FirstName_EN
  
      if (a ['Company']['en']) is None :
          res.append(None)
      else :
          res.append(a ['Company']['en']).encode('utf-8') #ParticipatingCompanyName_EN
  ...
  ...
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But after running this, it still gives me an error saying "NoneType object has no attribute encode". So I guess my IF ELSE logic is not working. OR there might be some other issue as well. Can anyone suggest what is the problem here. It would be a great help.</p>