Byte to String Python

In computing, data must be encoded into bytes before storage and decoded for reading. Bytes, binary units often 8-bits long, represent information, like 'Hi' as 01001000 01101001. This article explores byte-string conversions in Python.

What are Bytes in Python?

A Byte object is a data-representing sequence of bits/bytes. A computer has no idea what a string, picture, or music is. A computer can only store data in byte form. To save anything on your computer, it must first be converted into a format that a computer can comprehend and store. Bytes cannot be read by humans.

Now that you're familiar with bytes in Python let's talk about what we mean by strings.

What are Strings in Python?

In Python, an immutable data sequence is referred to as a string. A Python String is nothing more than an array of characters. It is simple to make by enclosing characters in quotations.

Please read Strings in Python to understand more about it.

The Main Distinction Between Bytes and strings is as Follows:

Both str and bytes are "typeByte objects" in Python 2 but not in Python 3. Python 3's definition of "byte objects" refers to "sequences of bytes," which are comparable to Python 2's "unicode" objects. However, there are several distinctions between strings and Byte objects.

As previously stated, a byte string in Python is simply a sequence of bytes. It isn't readable by humans. Everything must be transformed into a byte string under the hood before it can be stored in a computer.

A character string, sometimes known simply as a "string," is a collection of characters. It is readable by humans. A character string cannot be stored directly in a computer; it must first be encoded (converted into a byte string). A character string can be translated into a byte string using a variety of encodings, including ASCII and UTF-8.

Consider the following example:

Code:

Output:

Explanation:

The Python code above will encode the text 'I am a string' using the ASCII encoding. The above code will produce a byte string. Python will render it as b'I am a string' if you print it. However, keep in mind that byte strings are not human-readable; Python decodes them from ASCII when you print them. A byte string is represented in Python by a ‘b’, followed by the ASCII representation of the byte string.

A byte string may be decoded back into a character string; let us now look at some of the methods for doing so.

How to Convert Byte to String Python?

Method 1 : Using the decode() Method :

Syntax:

Parameters:

For instance, consider converting bytes to a string using the UTF-8 encoding.

Code:

Output:

Explanation: In the preceding code, we supplied the encoding format, decoded the bytes object, and printed it.

Method 2 : Using str() Function :

Syntax:

By utilizing the built-in str() method, you can also convert bytes to strings. It is the simplest way to convert bytes to strings.

This function accomplishes the same thing as the previous example's decode() method.

Let's have a look at an example.

Code:

Output:

We must give the encoding option to str(), or we may obtain strange results. Faulty output results from incorrect encoding. For example, if we supply UTF-16 to the str() function, we will obtain the following output.

Output:

The sole disadvantage of this method may be in code readability.

Code:

When these two lines are compared, you can see that the latter is more specific about decoding the bytes.

To learn more about str() in python, click here.

Method 3: Using Bytes to String with codecs :

Syntax:

For text encoding and decoding, Python additionally has a built-in codecs package. This module also contains a decode() method. You may use this function to convert bytes to strings.

We'll examine an illustration of how to decode a given byte stream using the codecs.decode() function.

Code:

Output:

Method 4: Using map() Without Using the b Prefix :

The map() method in python accepts a function and a Python iterable object (list, tuple, string, etc.) as inputs and returns a map object. The function is applied to each list member and returns an iterator.

As you may be aware, each Python character is assigned a Unicode value, an integer. In Python, we may thus convert a number to a character. We may use the built-in chr() method to do this.

We'll use the map function in this example to convert a byte to a string without requiring the prefix b. Let us look at an example to comprehend the concept better. Code:

Output:

Explanation: First, we took a list as input and placed it in the variable byte. We used the map()` method to map each number to a character given a list of integers. The map function was then used within the join() method. It will join all of the characters after the conversion. Finally, we printed the output. As a result, the string with the prefix b may be seen.

Method 5: Using pandas

We assume you have a solid knowledge of Pandas before delving into using pandas to decode Byte stream.

If you're using pandas and have a data frame of bytes, you can quickly convert it to strings by invoking the str.decode() method on a column. Let us look at an example to comprehend the concept better.

Code:

Output:

Explanation:

In this example, we first imported the pandas library under the alias pd. The decode() method was then applied to the supplied dataset. Finally, we printed the results.

The operations of encoding and decoding are inverse. Everything must be encoded before being stored to disc, and everything must be decoded before being read by a human. That's all there is to it when it comes to converting bytes to strings in Python.

Explore Scaler Topics Python Tutorial and enhance your Python skills with Reading Tracks and Challenges.