The bytes() method returns an immutable bytes object initialized with the given size and data.
Example
message = 'Python is fun'
# convert string to bytes
byte_message = bytes(message, 'utf-8')
print(byte_message)
# Output: b'Python is fun'
bytes() Syntax
The syntax of bytes() method is:
bytes([source[, encoding[, errors]]])
bytes() method returns a bytes object which is an immutable (cannot be modified) sequence of integers in the range 0 <=x < 256.
If you want to use the mutable version, use the bytearray() method.
bytes() Parameters
bytes() takes three optional parameters:
- source (Optional) - source to initialize the array of bytes.
- encoding (Optional) - if the source is a string, the encoding of the string.
- errors (Optional) - if the source is a string, the action to take when the encoding conversion fails (Read more: String encoding)
The source parameter can be used to initialize the byte array in the following ways:
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| String | Converts the string to bytes using str.encode() Must also provide encoding and optionally errors |
| Integer | Creates an array of provided size, all initialized to null |
| Object | A read-only buffer of the object will be used to initialize the byte array |
| Iterable | Creates an array of size equal to the iterable count and initialized to the iterable elements Must be iterable of integers between 0 <= x < 256 |
| No source (arguments) | Creates an array of size 0 |
bytes() Return Value
The bytes() method returns a bytes object of the given size and initialization values.
Example 1: Convert string to bytes
string = "Python is interesting."
# string with encoding 'utf-8'
arr = bytes(string, 'utf-8')
print(arr)
Output
b'Python is interesting.'
Example 2: Create a byte of given integer size
size = 5
arr = bytes(size)
print(arr)
Output
b'\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
Example 3: Convert iterable list to bytes
rList = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
arr = bytes(rList)
print(arr)
Output
b'\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05'