How to convert a text in a file into bytes in Python 3

Question

I have a text in a file in my directory. I want to convert it into bytes. How can I do it with Python3?

Just open it as a binary file, in the call to `open` use the options string `'rb'`. — Paul Rooney, Jun 25 '17 at 04:06
Alrighty !! @Paul..and if I want to copy its content to other file?? — user7083361, Jun 25 '17 at 04:07
don't bother opening it, in that case just copy it using `shutil` or another applicable module. — Paul Rooney, Jun 25 '17 at 04:12
Thanks @Paul..can I decode it into a string again after opening it in 'rb' — user7083361, Jun 25 '17 at 04:13
Sure see [here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/606191/convert-bytes-to-a-python-string). — Paul Rooney, Jun 25 '17 at 04:16
@Paul..could you write the code here for me to understand.. I'm a Python amateur.. Thanks a lot — user7083361, Jun 25 '17 at 06:12

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 25 '17 at 12:59

Assuming your file is named filename.ext and you are running in the parent directory of dir, then you could try the following code:

with open('dir/filename.ext', 'rb') as f:
    contents = f.read()

    # Do something with contents

If all you want is to copy the file, then you could do this:

import shutil

shutil.copyfile('dir/filename.txt', 'dir/copiedfile.txt')

This will create a copiedfile.txt in the dir directory.

1 Answers1