a bytes-like object is required, not 'str' JSON File opened as STR

Question

I've only learnt the basics of Python please forgive me but I was not able to determine the fix from the other posts. I open my JSON files with 'r' and I think I'm writing to them in r but it doesn't like that. Changing it to 'r' doesn't help :(

For the following section:

if isinstance(to_write, list):     self.log_file.write(''.join(to_write) + "<r/>") else:     self.log_file.write(str(to_write) + "<r/>")     self.log_file.flush() 

The error I get is: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'

import math import time from random import randint import json  from instagram.client import InstagramAPI  class Bot:     def __init__(self, config_file, tags_file):         # Loading the configuration file, it has the access_token, user_id and others configs         self.config = json.load(config_file)          # Loading the tags file, it will be keep up to date while the script is running         self.tags = json.load(tags_file)          # Log file to output to html the debugging info about the script         self.filename = self.config["path"] + self.config["prefix_name"] + time.strftime("%d%m%Y") + ".html"         self.log_file = open(self.filename, "wb")          # Initializing the Instagram API with our access token         self.api = InstagramAPI(access_token=self.config["access_token"], client_secret=self.config['client_secret'])          # Likes per tag rate         self.likes_per_tag = math.trunc(min(self.config["follows_per_hour"],                                             self.config["likes_per_hour"]) / len(self.tags["tags"]))      def save_tags(self):         j = json.dumps(self.tags, indent=4)         f = open('tags.json', 'w')         print >> f, j         f.close()      def insta_write(self, to_write):         if self.filename != self.config["path"] + self.config["prefix_name"] + time.strftime("%d%m%Y") + ".html":             self.log_file.close()             self.filename = self.config["path"] + self.config["prefix_name"] + time.strftime("%d%m%Y") + ".html"             self.log_file = open(self.filename, "wb")          if isinstance(to_write, list):             self.log_file.write(''.join(to_write) + "<r/>")         else:             self.log_file.write(str(to_write) + "<r/>")             self.log_file.flush()      def going_sleep(self, timer):         sleep = randint(timer, 2 * timer)         self.insta_write("SLEEP " + str(sleep))         time.sleep(sleep)      def like_and_follow(self, media, likes_for_this_tag):         try:             var = self.api.user_relationship(user_id=media.user.id)              if self.config["my_user_id"] != media.user.id:                 self.insta_write("--------------")                 self.insta_write(var)                  if var.outgoing_status == 'none':                     self.insta_write("LIKE RESULT:")                     self.insta_write(self.api.like_media(media_id=media.id))                      self.insta_write("FOLLOW RESULT:")                     self.insta_write(self.api.follow_user(user_id=media.user.id))                      likes_for_this_tag -= 1                      self.going_sleep(self.config["sleep_timer"])                 else:                     self.going_sleep(self.config["sleep_timer"] / 2)          except Exception as e:             self.insta_write(str(e))             self.insta_write("GOING SLEEP 30 min")             time.sleep(1800)             self.like_and_follow(media, likes_for_this_tag)          return likes_for_this_tag      def run(self):         while True:             for tag in self.tags["tags"].keys():                 tag = str(tag)                  self.insta_write("--------------------")                 self.insta_write("TAG: " + tag)                 self.insta_write("--------------------")                  self.insta_write("--------------------")                 self.insta_write("DICTIONARY STATUS:")                  for keys, values in self.tags["tags"].items():                     self.insta_write(keys)                     if values is not None:                         self.insta_write(values)                  likes_for_this_tag = self.likes_per_tag                  while likes_for_this_tag > 0 and self.tags["tags"][tag] != 0:                     if self.tags["tags"][tag] is None:                         media_tag, self.tags["tags"][tag] = self.api.tag_recent_media(tag_name=tag,                                                                                       count=likes_for_this_tag)                     else:                         media_tag, self.tags["tags"][tag] = self.api.tag_recent_media(tag_name=tag,                                                                                       count=likes_for_this_tag,                                                                                       max_tag_id=self.tags["tags"][tag])                      self.insta_write("API CALL DONE")                      if len(media_tag) == 0 or self.tags["tags"][tag] is None:                         self.tags["tags"][tag] = 0                         likes_for_this_tag = 0                     else:                         self.insta_write(self.tags["tags"][tag])                         self.tags["tags"][tag] = self.tags["tags"][tag].split("&")[-1:][0].split("=")[1]                      self.save_tags()                      for m in media_tag:                         likes_for_this_tag = self.like_and_follow(m, likes_for_this_tag)                  if reduce(lambda r, h: r and h[1] == 0, self.tags["tags"].items(), True):                     self.insta_write("END")                     exit(1)    if __name__ == '__main__':     bot = Bot(open("config_bot.json", "r"), open("tags.json", "r"))     bot.run() 

Answer 1

You opened the file as binary:

self.log_file = open(self.filename, "wb") 

but are writing str Unicode strings to it. Either open the file in text mode (with an encoding set) or encode each string, separately.

Opening the file in text mode is easiest:

self.log_file = open(self.filename, "w", encoding="utf8")