Convert bytes data stored in string to bytes again

Question

i have a string storing data of bytes, an example would be instead have b'Hi\x81y' i have an string with 'Hi\x81y'.

So, with the string, how is in utf-8 i can't read the real data..., and i can't found a way to transform the string expression back to the bytes form.

In some way i'm trying to do this:

data_str = 'Hi\x81y'
eval("b'{}'".format(data_str))
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "<string>", line 1
SyntaxError: bytes can only contain ASCII literal characters.

Saldy this example don't works and send an error, even worls if we write manually the code .

Any function i test to decode/encode/transform this fails, because python detect the string as utf-8 while is in bytes.

"this example don't works and send an error" If you get an error you should post the logs of it here in the question. — takendarkk
– takendarkk, Commented Oct 29, 2018 at 20:28
eval() is used in less than <1% of the worlds code (for a reason). If you ever think you need it, what you might want is actually ast.literal_eval which is half as harmful but does what you probably think eval() will solve. — Torxed
– Torxed, Commented Oct 29, 2018 at 20:36
Hi, i update the post with the error, ast.literal_eval send the same error. — Latot
– Latot, Commented Oct 29, 2018 at 20:49
Include an example of how you set the value of data_str; as it is, it's not clear if you have a 4-byte string or a 7-byte string. — chepner
– chepner, Commented Oct 29, 2018 at 20:54
Hi, the example of data_str is in the post..., i'll write in the code only in case... — Latot
– Latot, Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 22:44

Håken Lid · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-29 20:37:29Z

1

Not sure exactly what you mean, but you could try any 8 bit encoding.

>>> 'Hi\x81y'.encode('latin_1')
b'Hi\x81y'

answered Oct 29, 2018 at 20:37

Håken Lid

23.2k10 gold badges58 silver badges73 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Latot Over a year ago

Nice!, that its. Thx.

nosklo · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-29 20:37:32Z

0

To convert bytes into a string, use the decode method:

mystring = mybytes.decode('utf-8')

To convert back the string to bytes, use the encode method:

mybytes = mystring.encode('utf-8')

answered Oct 29, 2018 at 20:37

nosklo

224k58 gold badges300 silver badges299 bronze badges

1 Comment

Latot Over a year ago

Hi, this is not what i'm asking, the problem is when we have sores the data of the bytes in a str, and back from there to bytes.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Convert bytes data stored in string to bytes again

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

1 Comment

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related