How to turn a list of byte-strings into a string in Python3

Question

I have this, via the Github API, after base64 decoding:

[b'<!DOCTYPE html>\n', b'<html>\n', b'    <head>\n']

And I'd really like a string (with \n line endings), or a list of strings.

I spent an hour chasing TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str' because I thought it was already a list of strings, and questioning my own lambda/filter skills before I realized the root cause was somewhere else. I tried googling but I only get hits for 'python bytes to string' which is different.

How is "python bytes to string" different?

tripleee
– tripleee

2017-03-06 12:25:25 +00:00
Commented Mar 6, 2017 at 12:25 — tripleee
– tripleee, Commented Mar 6, 2017 at 12:25

Dimitris Fasarakis Hilliard · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-06 12:19:50Z

4

You could just map the bytes.decode method to each element and then join it if you need a single string:

l = [b'<!DOCTYPE html>\n', b'<html>\n', b'    <head>\n']
s = "".join(map(bytes.decode, l))

or, call decode on each element in a list-comp if you need a list:

ls = [i.decode() for i in l]

With the results now being:

>>> print(repr(s))  # repr to show \n 
'<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n    <head>\n'
>>> print(ls)
['<!DOCTYPE html>\n', '<html>\n', '    <head>\n']

answered Mar 6, 2017 at 12:19

Dimitris Fasarakis Hilliard

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2 Comments

paul_h Over a year ago

Thanks. I can't help but wonder if the error message for TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not str could be more helpful for noobs

DeVaa Over a year ago

Thanks for your great help. I was working on something cmd & tkinter. So I need these help.

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