strings in python2 and python3

I have written a lot of code in Python2. Not as much in Python3.

One thing I used Python for a lot is to quickly convert string values into base64 encoding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64

In Python2 that looks something like this (using the repl)

Python 2.7.5 (default, Oct 30 2018, 23:45:53) 
[GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-36)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import base64
>>> base64.b64encode("test")
'dGVzdA=='

Sadly that quickly typed sequence does not work in Python3. Sigh.

The base64 module from Python2 used to take a string as an argument to the b64encode call. https://docs.python.org/2/library/base64.html

In Python3 that has changed and it now accepts a "bytes-like-object."
https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html#term-bytes-like-object

And out of the box a string is not a bytes-like-object. So you have to convert it to use the string with b64encode.

Again using the Python repl now with Python3

Python 3.7.5 (default, Nov  6 2019, 11:03:32) 
[Clang 8.0.0 (clang-800.0.42.1)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> s="test"
>>> import base64
>>> bytes(s,"utf-8")
b'test'
>>> base64.b64encode(bytes(s,"utf-8"))
b'dGVzdA=='

Sadly more things to type with your fingers. But not fast and loose with the data types.

Comments

[Valts Liepiņš]

Luckily you can type byte string literals in Python3: base64.b64encode(b'test')
That should make it as neat and simple as in Python2!

[Tony Colston]

Even better than mine! Good catch.