Python struct.unpack errors with TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'

Question

Can someone please help with the following line of code and Error? I am unfamiliar with python value conversions.

The specific line that generates the error is:

Answer 1

When you are using Python 2.x str is a byte array. For Python 3, you must use bytes like this:

struct.unpack("<h", bytes([b, a]))[0]