How to decode bytes in python This week's blog post is about handling errors when encoding and decoding data. read(size) returns an empty chunk). loads() Using str() with decode and json. def encrypt1(var, key): return bytes(a ^ b for a, b in zip(var, key)) The second one uses int. Python 3 is no more Unicode capable than Python 2. Take a look at the examples on the python doc and play around with it a bit to get a feel for it (when a tuple is returned/needed, e. If buf given is not image data then NULL will be returned. This can be interconverted using the decode and loads function which returns the string from bytes and converts that to the dictionary again. Here’s an example: Feb 1, 2021 · Try the following code. Sep 21, 2018 · Sadly there is no documentation so I can't find anything how to decode this. Jan 30, 2025 · Learn how to convert bytes to strings in Python using `decode()`, `str()`, and `codecs`. Feb 9, 2025 · Step 3: Decode the Bytes to String. Mar 8, 2025 · Converting bytes to integers in Python involves interpreting a sequence of byte data as a numerical value. I want to decode all of them to Unicode for further processing in my script. x. It works just like the encode() variable: attach the variable to be converted using dot notation and specify the encoding type as the method's parameter. No reason to mess with JSON unless you are specifically using non-Python dict syntax in your string. So, please no handle work advices. It can gracefully handle Dec 20, 2012 · In Python 3. open('filename. Hence u"\u0432" will result in the character в. * b64decode(): This function decodes an ASCII bytes object to bytes using the specified encoding. So if the need arrives, you can develop your program to ignore any characters that it cannot decode by simply adding the ignore argument like this: See relevant content for datatofish. findall(r"(\d{4})([\d. Feb 3, 2016 · Personally, I love python's duck typing as much as the next guy. Aug 12, 2019 · In the source code of sqlalchemy I see following val = cursor. Jul 18, 2023 · After importing the module, you can encode and decode data using the following functions: * b64encode(): This function encodes a bytes-like object to ASCII bytes using the specified encoding. For documentation see bytes. To get a unicode result, decode again with UTF-8. Jul 7, 2014 · I have to read a text file into Python. dat file which was exported from Excel to be a tab-delimited file. 7+ only; on Python 3+, io. UnicodeDecodeError: 'charmap' codec can't decode byte 0x9d in position 3: character maps to . dumps() produces a bytes object. py", line 16, in <module> x=ser. Feb 23, 2024 · Method 1: Using the Bytes’ decode() Method. How to decode the byte into string in python3. b64encode(value). 4 decode bytes. def bytes_to_base64_string(value: bytes) -> str: import base64 return base64. readline(). Syntax: Series. May 8, 2023 · Method : Using encode() + dumps() + decode() + loads() The encode and dumps function together performs the task of converting the dictionary to string and then to corresponding byte value. decode are strictly for bytes Apr 14, 2025 · Converting bytes to integers in Python involves interpreting a sequence of byte data as a numerical value. For example, given a dictionary {b'key1': b'value1', b'key2': b'value2'}, we might want to convert it to {'key1': 'value1', 'key2': 'value2'}. I need to convert these bytes back to a readable string. From a developer’s point of view, the largest change in Python 3 is the handling of strings. Another bytes-like object added in 2. csv', engine='python') Alternate Solution: Sublime Text: Open the csv file in Sublime text editor or VS Code. If byteorder is "big", the most significant byte is at the beginning of the Python's standard library, even in the latest version, does not include anything that can decode X. ). decode('unicode_escape') If you start with a str object instead (equivalent to the python 2. Here’s an example: Feb 6, 2024 · In this article, we will see how to convert a bytes array into JSON format in Python. py3k and isinstance(val, bytes): val = val. The most straightforward method to convert bytes to a UTF-8 string in Python is to use the decode() method available on byte objects. Return to Blog Handling encoding and decoding errors in Python By John Lekberg on April 03, 2020. # Python 2. literal_eval. In Python 2, you could do: b'foo'. Byte data type. bytearray. Each chunk is printed to the console. unpack('H'*buf_size, raw_buf) Share Dec 8, 2014 · This does assume that all headers fit in those 2048 bytes. If you actually have a list of bytes, then, to get this object, you can use ''. Aug 21, 2015 · I am a beginner to Python. But if you need to be doing checks on your input arguments and coercing to different types, then you're no longer duck typing -- You're just making your code more difficult to read an maintain. Your actual question is how to strip a bytes string. decode() Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0x9f in position 0: ordinal not in range(128) Dec 22, 2015 · Also you should use the python struct module to decode the buffer. If I try to decode the data: x=ser. It is used to represent an integer between 0 and 255, and we can denote it as ‘b’ or ‘B. decode('utf-8') as suggested by @Mad Physicist) Feb 8, 2024 · Convert between bytes and strings in Python's urllib module using encode() and decode(). ""). 7 unicode) you'll need to encode to bytes first, then decode with unicode_escape. Dec 12, 2012 · In strings (or Unicode objects in Python 2), \u has a special meaning, namely saying, "here comes a Unicode character specified by it's Unicode ID". It supports the following encodings: In other words, the \xhh escape sequences represent individual bytes, and the hh is the hex value of that byte. The string contains some no-printable characters (for this reason I choose base64 encoding). Mar 1, 2024 · Decoding Bytes to Strings and Parsing JSON. read(size). There is a strip-function in the string module in Python 2: from string import strip Feb 27, 2024 · How to convert hex to byte in Python using codecs. Here we will use 'UTF-16' or 'utf-16' encoding to decode the 0xff byte array into string or ASCII character. str2. String literals can be enclosed within single quotes (i. I can effectively use base64 to transfer binary data through it, but this makes the data being transferred 33% larger, which, when dealing with large amounts of binary data like I am, kinda sucks. pack) and then back to C double (Python extracts the 4-bytes as a C float and then converts the result back to a C double/Python float). In v2 this returns the integer converted to a (byte)string because bytes is an alias for str, while in v3 it returns a bytestring containing the given number of null characters. str. x) object. You instead have UTF-8 data, decode it as such: Mar 5, 2012 · However, this is not your actual question. That is To convert Base64 to PDF file in Python you need the base64. I am a bit of a newbie at Python, numpy, opencv etc! Apr 16, 2024 · You can use the decode() method to convert bytes to a string in Python. fro Mar 27, 2019 · Pandas Series. 7 program that writes out data from various external applications. find() Finds a specific byte or subsequence and return the index of the first occurence: index() Same as find: replace() Mar 22, 2017 · I have a Python 2. strip() There is no strip() builtin in either Python 2 or Python 3. bytes. I feel like there should be a one-liner in Python 3 to do the same thing, rather than reading the entire line as a series of bytes (which I don't want to do) and then converting each part of the line separately. Maybe your operating system is configured wrong somehow. Example: >>> string='\x9f' >>> array=bytearray(string) >>> array bytearray(b'\x9f') >>> array. So, let’s dive in and start mastering Python bytes! TL;DR: What are Python Bytes and How Do I Use Them? Python bytes are a sequence of integers in the range of 0-255. Ok, so now I have to decode this binary data of type bytes… Now in Python 3, however, this doesn't work (I assume because of the bytes/string vs. decode() function is used to decode character string in the Series/Index using indicated encoding. if you can help, that would be appreciated. Instead of using open, import io and use io. So, something like: b'abc=' works just as well as b'abc==' (as does b'abc====='). from_bytes and int. decode() in python2 and bytes. Below are some of the ways by which we can convert a bytes array into JSON format in Python: Using decode and json. This blog post will walk you through the fundamental concepts, usage methods, common practices, and best practices for decoding bytes in Python. loads() with decode() Using json. How to decode a unicode-like string in Python 3? 0. fromhex() bytes. In most cases, it is OK if you leave the encoding method as default, utf-8, but it is not always safe because the bytes could be encoded with other encoding methods rather than utf-8. The bytes type is an immutable sequence of bytes. It allows specifying the byte order (either 'big Dec 21, 2024 · Together – encode() and decode() help bridge string and byte representations in Python. Most times we need to decode bytes from our operating system, such as console output, the most pythonic way I found to do it is to import locale and then os_encoding = locale. loads to parse the JSON string into a Python dictionary (parsed_json). x) or bytes (Python 3. You can also use bytes(s, encoding=) and str(b, encoding=), respectively. Nothing fancier than that. open (Python 2. b64decode function and any function to write binary data into local files. It’s default value is cv2. decode(). decode('ascii') # 'ZGF0YSB0byBiZSBlbmNvZGVk' Note that to get the original data back you don't need to re-encode it to bytes because b64decode() handles ASCII-only strings as well as bytes: Recently I have been having trouble opening specific UTF-16 encoded files in Python. Warning, it is only a proof of concept. fromhex() May 11, 2013 · Bytes literals are always prefixed with 'b' or 'B'; they produce an instance of the bytes type instead of the str type. Apr 2, 2024 · I have Python 3. Apr 10, 2023 · decoded_string = byte_string. Is there a wa def bytes_to_base64_string(value: bytes) -> str: import base64 return base64. 2. Use str. You will learn 6 different ways to handle these errors, ranging from strictly requiring all data to be valid Just a cautionary note from Python in a Nutshell about bytes: Avoid using the bytes type as a function with an integer argument. You can continue your Python learning with the following tutorials and courses: Aug 13, 2024 · What is SyntaxError: (Unicode Error) 'Unicodeescape' Codec Can't Decode Bytes in Python? The "Unicode Error: 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes" occurs when Python's Unicode decoder encounters an invalid Unicode escape sequence in a string. b64encode(b'data to be encoded') # b'ZGF0YSB0byBiZSBlbmNvZGVk' (notice the "b") data['bytes'] = encoded. Jul 8, 2011 · Python has bytes-to-bytes standard codecs that perform convenient transformations like quoted-printable (fits into 7bits ascii), base64 (fits into alphanumerics), hex escaping, gzip and bz2 compression. decode('string_escape') Capitán The result is a str that is encoded in UTF-8 where the accented character is represented by the two bytes that were written \\xc3\\xa1 in the original string. decode(errors="ignore") to the string Apr 18, 2021 · Difference between byte and string data type in Python String data type. The byteorder argument determines the byte order used to represent the integer. Using bytes. This happens in Python 2 just as much, but \Uxxxxxxxx only works in Unicode strings, so u'. Example File: geeks. 12 on Windows 10. those without u prefix like u'\xc4pple'), one must decode from the native encoding (iso8859-1/latin1, unless modified with the enigmatic sys. Convert Bytes to String with decode() Let's take a look at how we can convert bytes to a String, using the built-in decode() method for the Nov 27, 2019 · Clarification: When I write an xml file, the strings are initially of type bytes, e. Let’s explore a few techniques to convert a hex string to bytes. If your binary data is already UTF-8 encoded, you can simply decode it to a text string: Nov 22, 2022 · I'm dealing with a communication channel that: Converts \n characters into \r\n; Removes 0xfd, 0xfe, and 0xff characters entirely; Not ideal for transferring binary data. Mar 3, 2009 · We can decode the bytes object to produce a string using bytes. 509 certificates. decode(encoding='utf-8', errors='strict'). decode() UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x86 in position 9: invalid start byte Apr 3, 2020 · Homepage Blog Contact News. join(bytelist). from_bytes( bytes, byteorder, *, signed=False) The argument bytes must either be a bytes-like object or an iterable producing bytes. The embedded side of my project is a micro controller that creates a base64 string starting from raw byte. This function is equivalent to str. Related Articles: Python | Convert String to bytes; Python Array ; Read a file line by line in Python Aug 29, 2016 · I would create a python script that decode a Base64 string to an array of byte (or array of Hex values). loads() with bytearray; Bytes To JSON in Python Using json. However when the file is read I get this error: UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xe9 in byte position 7997: invalid continuation byte When I open the file in my text editor (Notepad++) and go to position 7997 I don’t see Oct 23, 2015 · Explicitly decode the str you read using the correct codec (to get a unicode object), then encode that back to utf-8. However, the manual approach is not recommended. 6. Let's I add issue with some columns being either full of str or mixed of str and bytes in a dataframe. string/unicode switch. Output. For example, b'hello'. It is a sequence of Unicode characters (encoded in UTF -16 or UTF-32 and entirely depends on Python’s compilation). May 24, 2018 · Python 3. The default encoding is UTF-8, so if you . Decode UTF-8 encoded bytes to str: bs. For example, if it's UTF-8: stringdata = data. g the regular str is now a Unicode string and the old str is now bytes. Jul 12, 2013 · I suggest to add the following to complete the answer. Jun 25, 2018 · But you should try to find out why your terminal is set to such a strange encoding (which Python just tries to adopt to). setdefaultencoding function) to unicode, then encode to a character set that can display the characters you wish, in this case I'd recommend UTF-8. read_csv(filepath, names=fields) UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xda in position 6: invalid continuation byte Feb 3, 2016 · Personally, I love python's duck typing as much as the next guy. Jan 6, 2020 · Conclusion. encode UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x80 in position 0: invalid start byte The errors argument specifies the response when the input string can’t be converted according to the encoding’s rules. Other bytes I want to encode as hex values, so they can still be easily understood. decode() in python3. Below I want to show you a basic example of how to do this, but before continuing I want to warn you that PDF files may contain malicious content that may jeopardize the security of users viewing such PDF files. Let Python do the work from #1 for you implicitly. By specifying ‘utf-8’ as the decoding scheme, the bytes are properly converted into a UTF-8 encoded string. Dec 13, 2014 · Is there any way to preprocess text files and skip these characters? UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xa1 in position 1395: invalid start byte Jun 27, 2020 · @PetrKrampl accuracy of C float (single, 4 bytes) and C double (double, 8 bytes). UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xa8 in position 14: invalid start byte Without encoding ='utf8' 'charmap' codec can't decode byte 0x9d in position 622: character maps to <undefined> P. Method 1: Decode with UTF-8. That is Python's standard library, even in the latest version, does not include anything that can decode X. There are many other answers on this question, but I want to point out that (at least in Python 3. encode Feb 2, 2024 · Python 3 Convert Bytes to String by Using the decode Method. I have tried the following: import codecs f = codecs. '') or double quotes (i. decode method of bytes could convert bytes to string with the given encoding method. You have 4 bytes with hex values C3, A7, C3 and B5, that do not map to printable ASCII characters so Python uses the \xhh notation instead. Here is some example code that demonstrates how to use the decode() method to convert a byte string to a string: Apr 24, 2025 · Reading from a file in Python means accessing and retrieving the contents of a file, whether it be text, binary data or a specific data format like CSV or JSON. This probably fixes 50% of people's Apr 15, 2025 · Converting a hexadecimal string to bytes in Python involves interpreting each pair of hexadecimal characters as a byte. 1 day ago · The argument bytes must either be a bytes-like object or an iterable producing bytes. Dec 5, 2024 · For example, Python may attempt to decode a byte that doesn’t correspond to valid UTF-8 characters, leading to errors like: File "C:\Importer\src\dfman\importer. EDIT: In my tests unsetting the env variable LANG produced this strange setting for the stdout encoding for me: Mar 9, 2018 · All you need is ast. – Feb 7, 2024 · Below are some of the ways by which we can convert bytes to JSON in Python: Using json. Format: Since encode() converts a string to bytes, decode() simply does the reverse. decode() function. decode() method Jan 6, 2020 · Similar to encoding a string, we can decode a stream of bytes to a string object, using the decode() function. read() but I get the following error: UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf16' codec can't decode bytes in position 18-19: illegal UTF-16 surrogate Feb 23, 2024 · The decode() method in Python converts a bytes object into a string. encode / bytes. struct supports you in getting the right byte order, which most of the time is network byte order and different from your system. You decode a UTF-8 byte sequence into a Unicode string, and you encode a Unicode string into a UTF-8 byte sequence. decode(encoding, errors='strict') Parameter : encoding : str errors : str, optional Returns : decoded Series/Index of objects Aug 14, 2024 · Converting a hexadecimal string to bytes in Python involves interpreting each pair of hexadecimal characters as a byte. For example, the hex string 0xABCD would be represented as two bytes: 0xAB and 0xCD. e. csv text/plain; charset=us-ascii This is a third-party file, and I get a new one every day, so I would rather not chang Simplest of all Solutions: import pandas as pd df = pd. For example, if we try to use UTF-8 to decode a UTF-16-encoded version of nonlat above: Jun 12, 2024 · The main route to convert Python bytes to a string is the . Dec 19, 2023 · Splits a given bytes object into a list of substrings based on a given delimiter. from_bytes() method is used to convert a byte object into an integer. And the asnwer is that you do that the same way as you string a text-string: somestring. encode(encoding) Jul 9, 2024 · Converting a sequence of bytes to a Unicode string is done by calling the decode() method on that str (in Python 2. startswith() Checks if a bytes object starts with a specific byte or not. decode ('utf-8') print (string_data) Output: Hello, World! Handling Different Encodings. Python Convert a Bytes Array into JSON Format. decode(encoding). The first one is based on zip:. The while True loop continues until the file is fully read, breaking when no more data is available (f. loads() with str() Using json. listdir(), some of them are encoded in UTF8 and some are CP1252. You just need ask the "library" to give you the request content in bytes and you will handle the decoding yourself (if library can't give you then it is trying to do black magic then you shouldn't use it). decode function decodes the bytes type to the string type. b64decode will truncate any extra padding, provided there is enough in the first place. This method decodes the bytes using a specified encoding. Jan 23, 2018 · Use a regular expression to extract the keys and values: import re results = [ dict(re. fetchone()[0] if util. decode('utf-8') yields 'hello' . Python provides built-in functions and methods for reading a file in python efficiently. x is, however it is slightly less confused on the topic. decode() Why we do decode only for Python3 and doesn Mar 26, 2014 · This is a common problem, so here's a relatively thorough illustration. I have a program to find a string in a 12MB file . In other words, what's wrong is the name str (instead of the encode/decode order), which they fixed in 3. This step-by-step guide includes examples for easy understanding. We specify the encoding parameter as 'utf-8', which instructs Python to decode the bytes using the UTF-8 encoding standard. They may only contain ASCII characters; bytes with a numeric value of 128 or greater must be expressed with escapes. x you will receive a bytes literal. The sequence consists of integers in the range 0 to 255. Finally, decode the bytes into a string using the decode() method. py", line 26, in import_chr data = pd. Here's an example: # Example: Convert bytes to string byte_data = b'Hello, World!' string_data = byte_data. In Python 2, the str type was used for two different kinds of values – text and bytes, whereas in Python 3, these are separate and incompatible types. Please turn off your ad blocker. Using int. The program sends a byte of numbers to the machine and receive number of bytes as reply. Apr 9, 2025 · Understanding how to decode bytes correctly ensures that the data is in a usable and meaningful form, such as a string of text. read_csv('file_name. Finally, we print the decoded string using the print function. decode are strictly for bytes May 24, 2016 · As per String literals:. decode(encoding) If you want to encode a string (turn it into a byte array) call: the_string. from_bytes() int. 6 is the bytearray - similar to bytes, but mutable. getpreferredencoding(). g. decode('utf-8') to get the final result: Python unable to decode byte string. decode() I get the following error: Traceback (most recent call last): File "ser. This section provides various methods to decode binary data to UTF-8 properly. encode('hex') In Python 3, str. Use the decode() method to convert bytes to a string. to_bytes: May 27, 2015 · pickle. When the text contains also characters written as non-escape sequences, the replacement must be done the more complicated way (I will show later when wanted). decode() Why we do decode only for Python3 and doesn Oct 12, 2016 · import base64 encoded = base64. For non-unicode strings (i. Feb 23, 2017 · #how to decode byte 0xff in python As we know this is hexadecimal encoding so , utf-8 , codec and other decoders are not able to decode this byte into string. decode() to go from bytes to str. decode('ASCII') actually encodes bytes to string, not decodes them. For example: For example: >>> b = bytearray([0x41, 0x42, 0xC3, 0x43]) Apr 10, 2023 · decoded_string = byte_string. In practice, you probably won't come across such headers Aug 18, 2023 · It seems you just need to add padding to your bytes before decoding. Nov 7, 2012 · A string is already 'decoded', thus the str class has no 'decode' function. com. For example, if you have the byte sequence b'\x00\x01', it can be converted to the integer 1. Python 3 string decode. decode() method on the result to convert the bytes object to a Python string. Mar 3, 2010 · UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0x8b in position 1: unexpected code byte In order to decode a gzpipped response you need to add the following modules (in Python 3): import gzip import io Apr 9, 2025 · buf - It is the image data received in bytes; flags - It specifies the way in which image should be read. endswith() Checks if a bytes object ends with a specific byte or not. IMREAD_COLOR; Return Type: If the input byte data is a valid image, the function returns a NumPy ndarray, representing the image in the specified color mode. S. Python 3 example: Apr 14, 2025 · This article covers different ways to convert bytes into strings in Python such as: Using decode() method; Using str() function; Using codecs. Sometimes, the bytes might be encoded in a different format. decode(os_encoding) – May 25, 2013 · Stack Overflow for Teams Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers; Advertising & Talent Reach devs & technologists worldwide about your product, service or employer brand Feb 4, 2021 · First find the encoding of the string and then decode it to do this you will need to make a byte string by adding the letter 'b' to the front of the original string. In this article, we learned how to use the encode() and decode() methods to encode an input string and decode an encoded byte sequence. Whatever the accuracy of storing 3. The bytes. It uses a specified encoding to perform the conversion. Dec 7, 2022 · Step 2: Call the bytes. However, the add-on cryptography package does support this. If your binary data is already UTF-8 encoded, you can simply decode it to a text string: May 28, 2019 · As the str and bytes types cannot be mixed, you must always explicitly convert between them. decode() method; Using map() without using the b prefix; Using pandas to convert bytes to strings; Let's explore them one by one: Using . x >>> print 'Capit\\xc3\\xa1n\n'. In this example, we begin with JSON data represented as bytes (json_data). . Solved with a minor modification of the solution provided by @Christabella Irwanto: (i'm more of fan of the str. There are other escape sequences that would trigger the same issue in Python 2 bytestrings, such as \Users\xander, where the \x is the start of a hex escape sequence. open and open are the same function), which gets you an open that works like Python 3's open. ’ Python Bytes to String base64 Feb 28, 2019 · Here str2 is a bytes object which I can decode easily using . Feb 12, 2024 · Next, we use the decode method to convert this byte data into a human-readable string. data', 'r', 'utf-16-be') contents = f. A str is really a byte sequence (in Python 2. Jan 29, 2024 · The str. decode('utf-8') (In Python 2. By decoding the bytes to a UTF-8 encoded string (decoded_data), we use json. Jan 23, 2025 · In Python, dictionary keys and values are often stored as byte strings when working with binary data or certain encoding formats, we may need to convert the byte strings into regular strings. We also learned about how it handles errors in encoding/decoding via the errors parameter. encode function encodes the string value to the bytes type. Let’s explore a few techniques to convert a hex string to bytes. This way, we can decode using my_b_string. Python3 May 3, 2018 · Under the hood, there is just a bunch of bytes. If byteorder is "big", the most significant byte is at the beginning of the byte array. x) base64. By default, it uses the ‘utf-8’ encoding, but you can specify another if necessary. I started from encoded frame from a MJPG bytes stream, which I want to decode in order to manipulate with OpenCV. 4. Specify the encoding, usually utf-8: # Decode the bytes to string string_data = bytes_data. If we have a bytearray containing string characters with the utf-8 encoding and want to convert that array into a string variable, we can use the built-in bytes() function in Python. Specify correct encoding to avoid errors. b'abc < ABC\x04&'. Dec 26, 2014 · I don't know how to convert Python's bitarray to string if it contains non-ASCII bytes. It a May 24, 2016 · As per String literals:. May 3, 2018 · Under the hood, there is just a bunch of bytes. Sep 25, 2018 · I've got about 1000 filenames read by os. I have a program that uses pyserial library to communicate with a serial device. Convert Binary Data to UTF-8 String. fro May 12, 2025 · Converting a hexadecimal string to bytes in Python involves interpreting each pair of hexadecimal characters as a byte. Using bytes. May 12, 2018 · You'll have to use unicode_escape instead: >>> b"\\123omething special". 141592654 as a C double, it's lost when it's converted to a C float (by struct. Here’s how you can chain the two methods in a single line of Python code: Apr 24, 2015 · pack() work's the other way around and stores data in a byte string. loads() method and decode() method to convert bytes to JSON objects. x, to convert a bytes string into a Unicode text str string, you have to know what character set the string is encoded with, so you can call decode. decode. decode() method, which allows users to choose an encoding and an error-handling strategy. decode('utf-8') print(string_data) # Output Hello, World! Mar 26, 2025 · Discover how to convert bytes to strings in Python using three simple methods: decode (), str () constructor, & codecs module. May 28, 2019 · As the str and bytes types cannot be mixed, you must always explicitly convert between them. Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) decodes bytes directly, one on one, to Unicode code points; even for those fields that should be treated as opaque data can be decoded this way, even though that is probably the wrong codec for those headers. The decode() is a method provided by the codecs module in Python, which is used to decode data from one format to another. decode and io Module May 3, 2025 · The code reads the file in chunks of 1024 bytes using f. Jul 21, 2022 · Comparison of two python3 solutions. decode(encoding='utf-8', errors='strict') The bytes. The encoding defaults to 'utf-8'. Python3 Feb 2, 2024 · Convert bytearray to string With the bytes() Function in Python. Python float is really C double. The b'' prefix tells you this is a sequence of 8-bit bytes, and bytes object has no Unicode characters, so the \u code has no Nov 27, 2020 · Bytestrings in Python 3 are officially called bytes, an immutable sequence of integers in the range 0 <= x < 256. from_bytes()int. 1 day ago · It’s possible to do all the work yourself: open a file, read an 8-bit bytes object from it, and convert the bytes with bytes. Here is some example code that demonstrates how to use the decode() method to convert a byte string to a string: May 12, 2018 · You'll have to use unicode_escape instead: >>> b"\\123omething special". decode('utf-8') Encode str to UTF-8 bytes: s. In a lot of cases they only contain alphanumeric ascii characters, which I want written to xml as such. Here's an Jun 12, 2020 · I am struggling to successfully decode a JPEG image from bytes, back to JPEG again. Thus: AttributeError: type object 'str' has no attribute 'decode' If you want to decode a byte array and turn it into a string call: the_thing. 0. The bytes type in Python is immutable and stores a sequence of values ranging from 0-255 (8-bits). x the b prefix will cause the enclosed string to become a type str you may have some encoded characters already hidden somewhere within. loads() with decode() In this example, we use the json. This shows that decode() converts bytes to a Python string. Let me help you understand this: Sep 13, 2023 · We’ll cover everything from creating and using bytes in Python, to converting bytes to other data types and vice versa, and even troubleshooting common issues. Using int. Since we can encode strings to make bytes, we can also decode bytes to make strings—but when decoding a bytes object, we must know the correct codec to use to get the correct result. decode('ASCII') There is one misunderstanding often made, especially by people coming from the Java world. Feb 7, 2025 · How to Convert Bytes to String in Python. You can continue your Python learning with the following tutorials and courses: Jan 27, 2024 · Now let’s go through different techniques to convert binary data to UTF-8 encoded text in Python. decode() a byte string without giving an encoding, Python 3 uses UTF-8 encoding. loads() Using bytes. join(bytelist) or b''. Mar 23, 2020 · int. txtHello World Hello GeeksforGe Jan 4, 2017 · There are several builtin error-handling schemes for encoding and decoding str to and from bytes and bytearray with e. You can get the value of a single byte by using an index like an array, but the values can not be modified. I continually get bitten by exceptions when I write to a file until I add . Task is to process 52 files, to merge data in every sheet with corresponded sheets in the 52 files. When Should You Use Each Method? Given multiple options available, here are some best practices based on real-world usage over 15+ years: decode() – For all incoming bytes from external sources like files, networks, sockets etc. why do you believe you need to perform any encoding/decoding? – Feb 2, 2024 · It is important to mention that sometimes a string may not be completely decoded using one codec. Expecting these arbitrary bytes to be valid UTF-8 text (the assumption you are making by trying to decode it to a string from UTF-8) is pretty optimistic. May 12, 2025 · Converting a hexadecimal string to bytes in Python involves interpreting each pair of hexadecimal characters as a byte. The bytes() function returns an immutable bytes object that can then be stored inside a string Oct 15, 2019 · @rogueprocess By your description, Python has it right. encode() to go from str to bytes, and bytes. in python 2. On Python 3. decode(encoding) Where byte_string is the input byte string that we want to decode and encoding is the character encoding used by the byte string. The file encoding is: file -bi test. ]+)", string)) for string in filter( bool, # non-empty Nov 22, 2015 · The Bytes Type. Jun 22, 2020 · Python and Bytes. The byteorder argument determines the byte order used to represent the integer, and defaults to "big". You need to specify the encoding that was used to encode the original Unicode string. Jan 27, 2024 · Now let’s go through different techniques to convert binary data to UTF-8 encoded text in Python. import struct buff_size = 512 # 'H' is for unsigned 16 bit integer, try 'h' also sample_buff = struct. E. or this: UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xb1 in position 1: invalid start byte. x, bytes is the same thing as str, so you've already got a string. x). '. They can also be enclosed in matching groups of three single or double quotes (these are generally referred to as triple-quoted strings). japthm diszrn yny otsfvk giqpag ull clo zaat aouj emf