diff --git a/Doc/library/functions.rst b/Doc/library/functions.rst
index cca28ff5fb3..ebbee71f48e 100644
--- a/Doc/library/functions.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/functions.rst
@@ -816,7 +816,7 @@ are always available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
 
       from functools import partial
       with open('mydata.db', 'rb') as f:
-          for block in iter(partial(f.read, 64), ''):
+          for block in iter(partial(f.read, 64), b''):
               process_block(block)