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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Add `.take_bytes([n])` a zero-copy path from `bytearray` to `bytes`","articleBody":"# Feature or enhancement\n\n### Proposal:\n\nUpdate `bytearray` to have its internal buffer always be a `PyBytesObject` and add a new method, `.take_bytes([n])` which extracts that buffer.\n\n`.take_bytes([n])` adds a way to go from a \"mutable\" buffer of bytes to an immutable one without requiring a memcpy.\n\nThis creates a path to resolve gh-60107\n\n# When would I use this?\n\nAny code which makes a `ba = bytearray()`, modifies it, then calls `bytes(ba)`. Other common patterns are `bytes(ba); ba.clear()` or `bytes(ba[:n]); del ba[:n]`. Note that if you want to discard data past a point, the most efficient pattern becomes `ba.resize(n); ba.take_bytes()` so that `take_bytes([n])` doesn’t need to keep around the soon to be discarded extra bytes.\n\n\n### Has this already been discussed elsewhere?\n\nI have already discussed this feature proposal on Discourse\n\n### Links to previous discussion of this feature:\n\nhttps://discuss.python.org/t/add-take-bytes-n-to-bytearray-providing-a-zero-copy-path-to-bytes/103804/5\nhttps://discuss.python.org/t/add-zero-copy-conversion-of-bytearray-to-bytes-by-providing-bytes/79164 -- edit: added\n\n\u003c!-- gh-linked-prs --\u003e\n### Linked PRs\n* gh-140128\n* gh-140770\n* gh-141741\n* gh-141862\n* gh-142243\n\u003c!-- /gh-linked-prs --\u003e\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/cmaloney","@type":"Person","name":"cmaloney"},"datePublished":"2025-10-09T18:18:39.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":4},"url":"https://github.com/139871/cpython/issues/139871"}