Encoding and Decoding Base64 Strings in Python
Introduction
Have you ever received a PDF or an image file from someone via email, only to see strange characters when you open it? This can happen if your email server was only designed to handle text data. Files with binary data, bytes that represent non-text information like images, can be easily corrupted when being transferred and processed to text-only systems.
Base64 encoding allows us to convert bytes containing binary or text data to ASCII characters. By encoding our data, we improve the chances of it being processed correctly by various systems.
In this tutorial, we would learn how Base64 encoding and decoding works, and how it can be used. We will then use Python to Base64 encode and decode both text and binary data.
What is Base64 Encoding?
Base64 encoding is a type of conversion of bytes into ASCII characters. In mathematics, the base of a number system refers to how many different characters represent numbers. The name of this encoding comes directly from the mathematical definition of bases – we have 64 characters that represent numbers.
The Base64 character set contains:
- 26 uppercase letters
- 26 lowercase letters
- 10 numbers
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