[Python-Dev] Why does base64 return bytes? (original) (raw)

Paul Moore p.f.moore at gmail.com
Tue Jun 14 11:51:44 EDT 2016


On 14 June 2016 at 16:19, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:

Why does base64 encoding in Python return bytes?

I seem to recall there was a debate about this around the time of the Python 3 move. (IIRC, it was related to the fact that there used to be a base64 "codec", that wasn't available in Python 3 because it wasn't clear whether it converted bytes to text or bytes). I don't remember any of the details, let alone if a conclusion was reached, but a search of the archives may find something.

Paul



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