读取文本文件时，为什么在每行前面都出现b'？

Question

Not sure what's going on here. I have a text file with the following contents:

1999,3,Rep Armey, Richard K.,[TX-26],0
1999,4,Rep Armey, Richard K.,[TX-26],0
1999,5,Rep Armey, Richard K.,[TX-26],0
1999,6,Rep Hyde, Henry J.,[IL-6],0
1999,7,Rep Talent, Jim,[MO-2],11,Rep DeMint, Jim,[SC-4],...
...

then I read it in using this code in python 3.3:

with open(bill_file_name,'rb') as input_file:
    lines=input_file.readlines()

for line in lines:
    line_list=str(line).split(',')
    session=line_list[0]

when I do print(session) I get b'1999 for all of the entries.

What's going on? How do I avoid this?

Answer 1

This is probably because you opened the file in binary mode.
Try open(bill_file_name,'r')

Answer 2

That's because you have the b (binary) option enabled while reading. Use the following.

with open('a.txt', 'r') as inp:
    lines = inp.readlines()

for line in lines:
    line_list=str(line).split(',')
    session=line_list[0]


>>> print(session)
1999