b64encode when going from Python2 to Python3

Question

I am running some code that runs on on Python2 to Python3 and it is having some issues. I have a string with formatting:

auth_string = '{client_id}:{client_secret}'.format(client_id=client_id, client_secret=client_secret)

and am passing it in as part of "headers":

headers = {
            'Accept': 'application/json',
            'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=UTF-8',
            'Authorization': 'Basic ' + b64encode(auth_string)
        }

When I run the code I get this error:

TypeError: 'str' does not support the buffer interface

After some research, it is because Python3 considers strings as unicode objects and you need to convert them to bytes first. No problem, I change the line to:

'Authorization': 'Basic ' + b64encode(auth_string.encode(encoding='utf_8'))

But now I get a new error:

TypeError: Can't convert 'bytes' object to str implicitly

What exactly am I missing here?

pacholik · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-22 14:28:24Z

6

b64encode accepts bytes and returns bytes. To merge with string, do also decode.

'Authorization': 'Basic ' + b64encode(auth_string.encode()).decode()

answered Sep 22, 2015 at 14:28

pacholik

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1 Comment

GreenGodot Over a year ago

That did the trick! Thanks a bunch. Looks like I forgot you need to merge with the string as well.

DevLounge · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-22 14:26:41Z

2

in Python3, strings are either bytes or unicode.

Just prefix your strings with b:

b'Basic ' + b64encode(auth_string.encode(encoding='utf_8'))

edited Sep 22, 2015 at 14:26

answered Sep 22, 2015 at 14:23

DevLounge

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Comments

Garet · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-23 10:59:50Z

1

You should cast your str var to a bytes var:

To cast str to bytes str should be content only ascii chars.

base64.64encode(auth_string.encode(encoding='ascii'))

or

base64.64encode(b'bytes string')

edited Sep 23, 2015 at 10:59

answered Sep 22, 2015 at 14:25

Garet

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3 Comments

GreenGodot Over a year ago

I think you mean to use "encoding=" instead of "encode=" as the latter is an invalid keyword. Your first method at least does not work. Is it possible to prefix a string object? e.g. (b''auth_code)?

Garet Over a year ago

Yes, the param name is "encoding", sorry.

Garet Over a year ago

You cannot use prefix with objects. Should use bytes(mystring.encode(encoding='ascii')) or bytes(mystring.encode('ascii'))

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