Convert a string to bytes in Python

This post will discuss how to convert a string to bytes in Python (and vice versa).

There are two different ways to convert a string to bytes in Python:

1. Using `bytes()` function

The idea is to use the bytes constructor bytes(string, encoding) to get an array of bytes from a string using the specified encoding.

if __name__ == '__main__':

s = 'Hello, World'

b = bytes(s, 'utf-8')

print(b) # b'Hello, World'

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To do the reverse, i.e., convert bytes to string, pass the bytes to a string constructor with the encoding used. If no encoding is specified, it uses the current default encoding used by the Unicode implementation.

if __name__ == '__main__':

b = b'Hello, World'

s = str(b, 'utf-8')

print(s) # Hello, World

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2. Using `encode()` function

Another option is to use the str.encode function to encode a string using the specified encoding or default encoding utf-8.

if __name__ == '__main__':

s = 'Hello, World'

b = s.encode('utf-8')

print(b) # b'Hello, World'

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To get a string decoded from the given bytes, you can use the bytes.decode function, which takes the encoding or uses the default encoding utf-8 when no encoding is specified.

if __name__ == '__main__':

b = b'Hello, World'

s = b.decode('utf-8')

print(s) # Hello, World

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That’s all about converting a string to bytes in Python.

Also See:

Convert bytes to string in Python

Convert a string to bytes in Python

1. Using bytes() function

2. Using encode() function

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1. Using `bytes()` function

2. Using `encode()` function