How would one convert a Python string representation of a byte-string to anactual byte-string? [dupl

Since your input is in Python’s syntax, for some reason (*), the thing to do
here is just call

eval

:

>>> r"b'x12x12'""b'\x12\x12'">>> eval(r"b'x12x12'")'x12x12'

Be careful, though, as this may be a security problem.

eval

will run any
pre, so you may need to sanitize the input. In your case its simple - just
check that the thing you’re

eval

-ing is indeed a string in the format you
expect. If security isn’t an issue here, just don’t bother.

Redarding your EDIT : Still,

eval

is the simplest approach here (after
adding the

b''

if it’s not there). You could also, of course, do this
manually by converting each

xXX

to its real value.

---

(*) Why, really? This seems like a strange choice for a data representation
format