Get string from a base64 encoded string in python

Question

I have to make a post to a rest server in python. In header authentication I have to include a base64 encoded string.

I do it with base64 module:

import base64
#node here is '3180' but I also tried with text
node = base64.b64encode(node.encode('utf-8'))
node = 'Basic ' + str(node)
headers = {'Content-type': 'application/json', 'Authentication': node}
print(headers)

And what I get in print is:

{'Authentication': "Basic b'MzE4MA=='", 'Content-type': 'application/json'}

Which has b' ... ' added to node base64 string. Is there a way to avoid those characters to appear? I don't know if they just appears in prints or also are sent to the server.

Jason S · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-13 08:42:53Z

6

b64encode is returning bytes instead of a str. When you call str() on it without specifying an encoding, instead of converting the value, it's actually giving you the Python representation of the bytes object which is b'MzE4MA=='.

To avoid this use node = 'Basic ' + node.decode('ascii')

Note that you could also use str(node, encoding='ascii') but this is longer.

answered Aug 13, 2014 at 8:42

Jason S

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