How do I convert a Python 3 byte-string variable into a regular string?

python-3.x string type-conversion
DjangoTango picture DjangoTango · Jun 25, 2015 · Viewed 280k times · Source

I have read in an XML email attachment with

bytes_string=part.get_payload(decode=False)

The payload comes in as a byte string, as my variable name suggests.

I am trying to use the recommended Python 3 approach to turn this string into a usable string that I can manipulate.

The example shows:

str(b'abc','utf-8')

How can I apply the b (bytes) keyword argument to my variable bytes_string and use the recommended approach?

The way I tried doesn't work:

str(bbytes_string, 'utf-8')

Answer

Toby Speight picture Toby Speight · Jun 25, 2015

You had it nearly right in the last line. You want

str(bytes_string, 'utf-8')

because the type of bytes_string is bytes, the same as the type of b'abc'.

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