:mod:`base64` --- RFC 3548: Base16, Base32, Base64 Data Encodings
This module provides data encoding and decoding as specified in RFC 3548. This standard defines the Base16, Base32, and Base64 algorithms for encoding and decoding arbitrary binary strings into ASCII-only byte strings that can be safely sent by email, used as parts of URLs, or included as part of an HTTP POST request. The encoding algorithm is not the same as the :program:`uuencode` program.
There are two interfaces provided by this module. The modern interface supports encoding and decoding ASCII byte string objects using all three alphabets. Additionally, the decoding functions of the modern interface also accept Unicode strings containing only ASCII characters. The legacy interface provides for encoding and decoding to and from file-like objects as well as byte strings, but only using the Base64 standard alphabet.
The modern interface provides:
The legacy interface:
An example usage of the module:
>>> import base64 >>> encoded = base64.b64encode(b'data to be encoded') >>> encoded b'ZGF0YSB0byBiZSBlbmNvZGVk' >>> data = base64.b64decode(encoded) >>> data b'data to be encoded'