Python 3: How do I use bytes-to-bytes and string-to-string encodings

Question

Check out the bytes-to-bytes and string-to-string encodings in Python 3:

http://docs.python.org/3/library/codecs.html#standard-encodings (Search for bytes-to-bytes)

How do I use these? I've tried using them in .encode and .decode but it didn't work.

agf · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-20 16:15:44Z

1

Accessing them through the codecs module by a non-alias name seems to work, in Python 3.2 and above:

>>> import codecs
>>> codecs.decode(b"asdf", "base64_codec")
b'j\xc7_'
>>> codecs.encode(b"asdf", "base64_codec")
b'YXNkZg==\n'
>>>

Using an alias name ("base64"), Python < 3.2, or bytes.decode all seem to fail.

answered Apr 20, 2013 at 16:15

agf

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4 Comments

Ram Rachum Over a year ago

Is this really the shortest way? That kinda sucks.

agf Over a year ago

@RamRachum Semantically, in Python 3, encode and decode are use specifically in respect to unicode, which is why bytes doesn't have encode, and str doesn't have decode. While it's less convenient than Python 2, it does separate going to and from unicode from other forms of text / byte manipulation.

Lennart Regebro Over a year ago

@RamRachum: How does this in any universe "kinda suck"? That code is clear, readable, pretty obvious and not particularly long?

Ram Rachum Over a year ago

In this very universe where a language called Python 2.x exists. Whether you say this sucks depends on what you compare it to. I'm sure that there are some languages that if you'd compare it to, you'd think it's not particularly long. But if you compare it to Python 2, it's about TWICE as long.

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