TypeError: 'str' does not support the buffer interface

Question

plaintext = input(\"Please enter the text you want to compress\")
filename = input(\"Please enter the desired filename\")
         


        

Answer 1

You can not serialize a Python 3 'string' to bytes without explict conversion to some encoding.

outfile.write(plaintext.encode('utf-8'))

is possibly what you want. Also this works for both python 2.x and 3.x.

Answer 2

For Django in django.test.TestCase unit testing, I changed my Python2 syntax:

def test_view(self):
    response = self.client.get(reverse('myview'))
    self.assertIn(str(self.obj.id), response.content)
    ...

To use the Python3 .decode('utf8') syntax:

def test_view(self):
    response = self.client.get(reverse('myview'))
    self.assertIn(str(self.obj.id), response.content.decode('utf8'))
    ...

Answer 3

If you use Python3x then string is not the same type as for Python 2.x, you must cast it to bytes (encode it).

plaintext = input("Please enter the text you want to compress")
filename = input("Please enter the desired filename")
with gzip.open(filename + ".gz", "wb") as outfile:
    outfile.write(bytes(plaintext, 'UTF-8'))

Also do not use variable names like string or file while those are names of module or function.

EDIT @Tom

Yes, non-ASCII text is also compressed/decompressed. I use Polish letters with UTF-8 encoding:

plaintext = 'Polish text: ąćęłńóśźżĄĆĘŁŃÓŚŹŻ'
filename = 'foo.gz'
with gzip.open(filename, 'wb') as outfile:
    outfile.write(bytes(plaintext, 'UTF-8'))
with gzip.open(filename, 'r') as infile:
    outfile_content = infile.read().decode('UTF-8')
print(outfile_content)

Answer 4

There is an easier solution to this problem.

You just need to add a t to the mode so it becomes wt. This causes Python to open the file as a text file and not binary. Then everything will just work.

The complete program becomes this:

plaintext = input("Please enter the text you want to compress")
filename = input("Please enter the desired filename")
with gzip.open(filename + ".gz", "wt") as outfile:
    outfile.write(plaintext)

Answer 5

For Python 3.x you can convert your text to raw bytes through:

bytes("my data", "encoding")

For example:

bytes("attack at dawn", "utf-8")

The object returned will work with outfile.write.

Answer 6

>>> s = bytes("s","utf-8")
>>> print(s)
b's'
>>> s = s.decode("utf-8")
>>> print(s)
s

Well if useful for you in case removing annoying 'b' character.If anyone got better idea please suggest me or feel free to edit me anytime in here.I'm just newbie