“ValueError: embedded null character” when using open()

Question

I am taking python at my college and I am stuck with my current assignment. We are supposed to take 2 files and compare them. I am simply trying to open the files so I can

Answer 1

The problem is due to bytes data that needs to be decoded.

When you insert a variable into the interpreter, it displays it's repr attribute whereas print() takes the str (which are the same in this scenario) and ignores all unprintable characters such as: \x00, \x01 and replaces them with something else.

A solution is to "decode" file1_content (ignore bytes):

file1_content = ''.join(x for x in file1_content if x.isprintable())