Python ‘bytes’ object cannot be interpreted as an integer

When encountering the error “python ‘bytes’ object cannot be interpreted as an integer”, it is usually related to the incorrect usage of bytes and integers in your code. The error occurs when you try to perform an operation that expects an integer but you provide a bytes object instead. To understand this error and its resolution, let’s go over some examples.

Example 1:


# Attempting to use a bytes object as an integer
data = b"Hello World"
total = sum(data)
print(total)
  

In this example, the bytes object b"Hello World" is assigned to the variable data. When we pass data to the sum() function, which expects an iterable of integers, we encounter the error because bytes are not interpretable as integers. To resolve this, we need to either convert the bytes object to integers or modify our code logic.

Example 2:


# Converting bytes to integers
data = b"Hello World"
total = sum(ord(byte) for byte in data)
print(total)
  

In this example, we fix the error by converting each byte in the bytes object to its corresponding integer value using the ord() function. This ensures that we pass an iterable of integers to the sum() function, and the error is resolved.

Example 3:


# Modifying code logic to handle bytes differently
data = b"Hello World"
total = len(data)
print(total)
  

In certain cases, you might not need to interpret the bytes as integers but perform a different operation. In this example, we calculate the length of the bytes object using the len() function. By modifying our code logic to match our desired outcome, we avoid the error altogether.

By understanding the cause of the error and applying the appropriate fixes, you can resolve the “bytes object cannot be interpreted as an integer” issue in your Python code.

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