Python3 and hmac . How to handle string not being binary

Question

I had a script in Python2 that was working great.

def _generate_signature(data):
   return hmac.new(\'key\', data, hashlib.sha256).hexdigest()

Answer 1

try

codecs.encode()

which can be used both in python2.7.12 and 3.5.2

import hashlib
import codecs
import hmac

a = "aaaaaaa"
b = "bbbbbbb"
hmac.new(codecs.encode(a), msg=codecs.encode(b), digestmod=hashlib.sha256).hexdigest()