How to Convert Bytes to Strings in Python

Converting bytes into readable strings in Python is an effective way to work with raw bytes fetched from files, databases, or APIs. You can do this in just three steps using the bytes.decode() method. This guide lets you convert byte data into clean text, giving you a result similar to what’s shown in the following example:

>>> binary_data = bytes([100, 195, 169, 106, 195, 160, 32, 118, 117])
>>> binary_data.decode(encoding="utf-8")
'déjà vu'

By interpreting the bytes according to a specific character encoding, Python transforms numeric byte values into their corresponding characters. This allows you to seamlessly handle data loaded from files, network responses, or other binary sources and work with it as normal text.

A byte is a fundamental unit of digital storage and processing. Composed of eight bits (binary digits), it’s a basic building block of data in computing. Bytes represent a vast range of data types and are used extensively in data storage and in networking. It’s important to be able to manage and handle bytes where they come up. Sometimes they need to be converted into strings for further use or comprehensibility.

By the end of this guide, you’ll be able to convert Python bytes to strings so that you can work with byte data in a human-readable format.

Step 1: Obtain the Byte Data

Before converting bytes to strings, you’ll need some actual bytes to work with. In everyday programming, you may not have to deal with bytes directly at all, as Python often handles their encoding and decoding behind the scenes.

Binary data exchanged over the internet can be expressed in different formats, such as raw binary streams, Base64, or hexadecimal strings. When you browse a web page, download a file, or chat with a colleague, the data that emerges travels as numeric bytes before it is interpreted as text that you can read.

In this step, however, you’ll obtain byte data using one of two approaches:

• Using the bytes literal (b"")
• Using the urllib package

You’ll soon find that using the urllib package requires that you go online. You can, however, create bytes manually without reaching out to the internet at all. You do this by prefixing a string with b, which creates a bytes literal containing the text inside:

raw_bytes = b"These are some interesting bytes"

You may be wondering why you have to create a bytes object at all from strings that you can read. This isn’t just a convenience. While bytes and strings share most of their methods, you can’t mix them freely. If you pass string arguments to a bytes method, then you’ll get an error:

>>> raw_bytes = b"These are some interesting bytes"
>>> raw_bytes.replace("y", "o")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'

A bytes object only accepts other bytes-like objects as arguments. If you try to use a string like "y" with a bytes method, then Python raises a TypeError. To work with raw binary data, you must explicitly use bytes, not strings.

Note that you can represent the same information using alternative numeral formats, including binary, decimal, or hexadecimal. For instance, in the following code snippet, you convert the same bytes object from the above code example into hexadecimal and decimal formats: