How to solve Type error: a byte-like object is required not ‘str’

Hello geeks and welcome, In this article, we will cover Type error: a byte-like object is required, not ‘str.’ Along with that, we will look at the root cause due to which this error occurs. Then we will look at different methods with the help of which we can get rid of this error. The root cause of this error lies in its name. Let us try to dissect it.

Type error: a byte-like object is required, not ‘str.’ What can we make of this statement? It clearly mentions that it requires a byte-like object, but instead, we are providing it with a string. Therefore the function can not be processed. In general, we can conclude that such error occurs when we try to pass a wrong argument to a function.

Now since we a have a basic understanding regarding this topic let us try to explore it in details in the coming sections.

Type error: a byte-like object is required not ‘str’

We will see a basic example related to this error, and then we will try to rectify it. First, we need to create a python file to execute this program. For our example, we have created the file in this manner.

f = open("sample.txt", "w+")
for i in range(1):
    f.write("USA,California\n")
    f.write("USA,Texas\n")
    f.write("Spain,Madrid\n")
    f.write("France,Paris\n")
    f.write("USA,Florida\n")

f.close()

This is how we create a text file in python. After successfully executing it we will get an output of this type.

//Country//state
USA,California
USA,Texas
Spain,Madrid
France,Paris
USA,Florida

Since we are done with the file creation next, our goal is to get all the data from this text file with “USA.” Let us write our code and see what output we get

f = open("sample.txt", "w+")
for i in range(1):
    f.write("USA,California\n")
    f.write("USA,Texas\n")
    f.write("Spain,Madrid\n")
    f.write("France,Paris\n")
    f.write("USA,Florida\n")


f.close()
with open("sample.txt", "rb") as file:
    f= file.readlines()
for r in f:
	if "USA" in r:
		print(r)
Type error: a byte-like object is required not 'str'

We get a Type error on running our code: a byte-like object is required not ‘str.’ What can be the principal reason behind it? The reason is that we have tried to open our text file as binary. We can rectify this error by opening our file in just read mode instead of binary mode. Let us try it out

f = open("sample.txt", "w+")
for i in range(1):
    f.write("USA,California\n")
    f.write("USA,Texas\n")
    f.write("Spain,Madrid\n")
    f.write("France,Paris\n")
    f.write("USA,Florida\n")


f.close()
with open("sample.txt", "r") as file:
    f= file.readlines()
for r in f:
	if "USA" in r:
		print(r)
Type error: a byte-like object is required not 'str'

Output:

USA,California

USA,Texas

USA,Florida

Hereby doing just a minute change, we can create a major difference and eliminate this error. Now let us look at another method by which we can get rid of this error.

f = open("sample.txt", "w+")
for i in range(1):
    f.write("USA,California\n")
    f.write("USA,Texas\n")
    f.write("Spain,Madrid\n")
    f.write("France,Paris\n")
    f.write("USA,Florida\n")


f.close()
with open(b"sample.txt", "r") as file:
    f= file.readlines()
for r in f:
	if "USA" in r:
		print(r)

Instead of opening the file in text mode, we have converted the file into a bytes object. All that we did was add ‘b’ before our text file to achieve this. We made the necessary changes after the f.close() statement.

Here we covered different methods. You can use any of the 2 as per your convince, and liking both works fine. As well as help you write error-free code.

1. When using .replace()

The method .replace() is used to replace a particular phrase of a string with another phrase. Let us consider a sample code that helps us understand the thing better.

text=b"Sun sets in east"
new_text=text.replace("east","west")
print(new_text)
TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'

In order to rectify this all that we need to do is add ‘b’ before east and west. Let us check whether it works or not.

text=b"Sun sets in east"
new_text=text.replace(b"east",b"west")
print(new_text)
b'Sun sets in west'

See, it works. You can also take the approach to convert it into a text file. Do tell me comments about what you get.

2. Encode and decode

When dealing with encoding and decoding this in python, such error can also occur. Here Encoder is the person that constructs the message and sends it. At the same time, a decoder interprets it for themselves. So if you follow the particular order of Bytes-> String -> Bytes, such error will never occur.

The error Type Error: X first arg must be bytes or a tuple of bytes, not str is somewhat similar to what we discussed in this article. When we try to pass in a string method instead of bytes, it occurs. As discussed in this article, you can adopt a similar approach to get rid of it.

Conclusion

In this article, we covered Type error: a byte-like object is required, not ‘str.’ Along with we looked at the cause for this error. Also, we looked at different methods by which we can solve this. To this, we looked at a couple of different examples. We also looked at different instances where this method can occur.

I hope this article was able to clear all doubts. But in case you have any unsolved queries feel free to write them below in the comment section. Done reading this, why not read different ways to plot circle in Matplotlib next.

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