Python 3.8 TypeError: can't concat str to bytes - TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'

Question

Very new to coding. This was the initial code I was trying to get to run but have found it is incompatible with python 3 because of how it handles strings and bytes.

def opensocket():
     s = socket.socket()
     s.connect((HOST,PORT))
     s.send("PASS " + PASS + "\r\n")
     s.send("NICK " + IDENT + "\r\n")
     s.send("JOIN #" + CHANNEL + "\r\n")
     return s

I think I need to encode these strings into bytes but all the conversion methods I've tried have given errors. here are some i've tried.

def opensocket():
     s = socket.socket()
     s.connect((HOST,PORT))
     s.send(b"PASS " + PASS + "\r\n")
     s.send(b"NICK " + IDENT + "\r\n")
     s.send(b"JOIN #" + CHANNEL + "\r\n")

and

def opensocket():
     s = socket.socket()
     s.connect((HOST,PORT))
     s.send("PASS " + PASS + "\r\n".encode())
     s.send("NICK " + IDENT + "\r\n".encode())
     s.send("JOIN #" + CHANNEL + "\r\n".encode())
     return s

both of these give errors saying the str can't be concatenated into bytes any help?

edit: went through the suggested post but I'm gaining nothing from that. it looks so different and I'm so new to this that I can't even tell where the string was he was trying to convert

Answer 1

In the case that PASS , IDENT and CHANNEL are bytes :

def opensocket():
     s = socket.socket()
     s.connect((HOST,PORT))
     s.send(b"PASS " + PASS + b"\r\n")
     s.send(b"NICK " + IDENT + b"\r\n")
     s.send(b"JOIN #" + CHANNEL + b"\r\n")

In the case that PASS , IDENT and CHANNEL are str :

def opensocket():
     s = socket.socket()
     s.connect((HOST,PORT))
     s.send(b"PASS " + PASS.encode('ascii') + b"\r\n")
     s.send(b"NICK " + IDENT.encode('ascii') + b"\r\n")
     s.send(b"JOIN #" + CHANNEL.encode('ascii') + b"\r\n")

It's important to know what protocol you're using, to know what encoding actually to use. 'ascii' is a safe bet, but it means you're limited in to ASCII-only characters, so if the protocol actually specifies UTF-8 strings, you should do .encode('utf-8') instead.