Python-redis keys() returns list of bytes objects instead of strings

You can configure the Redis client to automatically convert responses from bytes to strings using the decode_responses argument to the StrictRedis constructor:

r = redis.StrictRedis('localhost', 6379, charset="utf-8", decode_responses=True)

Make sure you are consistent with the charset option between clients.

Note

You would be better off using the EXISTS command and restructuring your code like:

string = 'abcde'
if redis.exists(string):
    do something..

The KEYS operation returns every key in your Redis database and will cause serious performance degradation in production. As a side effect you avoid having to deal with the binary to string conversion.