title: How do I 'declare' an empty bytes variable?
body: <p>How do I initialize ('declare') an empty <code>bytes</code> variable in Python 3?</p>
  <p>I am trying to receive chunks of bytes, and later change that to a
  utf-8 string.
  However, I'm not sure how to initialize the initial variable that will
  hold the entire series of bytes. This variable is called <code>msg</code>.
  I can't initialize it as <code>None</code>, because you can't add a <code>bytes</code> and a
  <code>NoneType</code>. I can't initialize it as a unicode string, because then
  I will be trying to add <code>bytes</code> to a string.
  Also, as the receiving program evolves it might get me in to a mess
  with series of bytes that contain only parts of characters.
  I can't do without a <code>msg</code> initialization, because then <code>msg</code> would be
  referenced before assignment.
  The following is the code in question</p>
  <pre><code>def handleClient(conn, addr):
      print('Connection from:', addr)
      msg = ?
      while 1:
          chunk = conn.recv(1024)
          if not chunk:
              break
          msg = msg + chunk
      msg = str(msg, 'UTF-8')
      conn.close()
      print('Received:', unpack(msg))
  </code></pre>