gh-113537: support loads str in plistlib.loads

Doc/library/plistlib.rst

@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ top level object is a dictionary.
 To write out and to parse a plist file, use the :func:`dump` and
 :func:`load` functions.
 
-To work with plist data in bytes objects, use :func:`dumps`
+To work with plist data in bytes or string objects, use :func:`dumps`
 and :func:`loads`.
 
 Values can be strings, integers, floats, booleans, tuples, lists, dictionaries
@@ -82,8 +82,8 @@ This module defines the following functions:
 
 .. function:: loads(data, *, fmt=None, dict_type=dict)
 
-   Load a plist from a bytes object. See :func:`load` for an explanation of
-   the keyword arguments.
+   Load a plist from a bytes or string object. See :func:`load` for an
+   explanation of the keyword arguments.
 
    .. versionadded:: 3.4
 

Lib/plistlib.py

@@ -888,6 +888,8 @@ def loads(value, *, fmt=None, dict_type=dict):
     """Read a .plist file from a bytes object.
     Return the unpacked root object (which usually is a dictionary).
     """
+    if type(value) == str:
+        value = value.encode()
     fp = BytesIO(value)
     return load(fp, fmt=fmt, dict_type=dict_type)
 

Lib/test/test_plistlib.py

@@ -508,6 +508,14 @@ def test_bytes(self):
         data2 = plistlib.dumps(pl2)
         self.assertEqual(data, data2)
 
+    def test_loads_str(self):
+        pl = self._create()
+        b = plistlib.dumps(pl)
+        s = b.decode()
+        self.assertEqual(type(s), str)
+        pl2 = plistlib.loads(s)
+        self.assertEqual(pl, pl2)
+
     def test_indentation_array(self):
         data = [[[[[[[[{'test': b'aaaaaa'}]]]]]]]]
         self.assertEqual(plistlib.loads(plistlib.dumps(data)), data)

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2023-12-30-20-30-05.gh-issue-113537.v1W5_X.rst

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Support loads ``str`` in :func:`plistlib.loads`.