String vs Byte string

Question

What's the difference between a string and a byte string? When is it appropriate to use a byte string instead of a string?

More specifically, if I download an image or another binary file from the web, why do I need to convert it to a byte string before I can save it?

Are you referring to the difference between str and byte in Python3? — John La Rooy
– John La Rooy, Commented Mar 14, 2012 at 4:28

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-14 04:31:07Z

3

In 2.x, there is no difference; str is a sequence of bytes.

In 3.x, A byte string is identified by a byte literal, b'...'; it can be gotten from a string by encoding it to a specific charset, and it is the default type for most I/O operations.

answered Mar 14, 2012 at 4:31

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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Alice W Over a year ago

Why is it the default type for IO operations?

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