What's the correct way to convert bytes to a hex string in Python 3?

Question

What's the correct way to convert bytes to a hex string in Python 3?

I see claims of a bytes.hex method, bytes.decode codecs, and have tried other possible functions of least astonishment without avail. I just want my bytes as hex!

Answer 1

Since Python 3.5 this is finally no longer awkward:

>>> b'\xde\xad\xbe\xef'.hex() 'deadbeef' 

and reverse:

>>> bytes.fromhex('deadbeef') b'\xde\xad\xbe\xef' 

works also with the mutable bytearray type.

Reference: https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#bytes.hex

Answer 2

Use the binascii module:

>>> import binascii >>> binascii.hexlify('foo'.encode('utf8')) b'666f6f' >>> binascii.unhexlify(_).decode('utf8') 'foo' 

See this answer: Python 3.1.1 string to hex