From de1f55430d40400f5d4fc003bfeaeffd3f85f804 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: j-t-1 <120829237+j-t-1@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2024 08:52:55 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] STY: Comment and refactor b_

Comment courtesy of @shartzog, issue #2726.
---
 pypdf/_utils.py | 13 +++++++------
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pypdf/_utils.py b/pypdf/_utils.py
index 38c0d67d7a..296d366c87 100644
--- a/pypdf/_utils.py
+++ b/pypdf/_utils.py
@@ -347,14 +347,15 @@ def b_(s: Union[str, bytes]) -> bytes:
         return bc[s]
     try:
         r = s.encode("latin-1")
-        if len(s) < 2:
-            bc[s] = r
-        return r
     except Exception:
         r = s.encode("utf-8")
-        if len(s) < 2:
-            bc[s] = r
-        return r
+    if len(s) < 2:
+        # Automated reporting frameworks and 'document to PDF' conversion tools love to
+        # use a 'render every character one at a time' paradigm for creating a
+        # 'justified' text layout, and many of them just behave that way by default to
+        # simplify their implementation.
+        bc[s] = r
+    return r
 
 
 def str_(b: Any) -> str:

From 06baf4fb48deece2188044eb1b0fd46acd02af02 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: j-t-1 <120829237+j-t-1@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2024 08:07:16 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] STY: Small refactor of b_

---
 pypdf/_utils.py | 4 ----
 1 file changed, 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pypdf/_utils.py b/pypdf/_utils.py
index 296d366c87..33776249d4 100644
--- a/pypdf/_utils.py
+++ b/pypdf/_utils.py
@@ -350,10 +350,6 @@ def b_(s: Union[str, bytes]) -> bytes:
     except Exception:
         r = s.encode("utf-8")
     if len(s) < 2:
-        # Automated reporting frameworks and 'document to PDF' conversion tools love to
-        # use a 'render every character one at a time' paradigm for creating a
-        # 'justified' text layout, and many of them just behave that way by default to
-        # simplify their implementation.
         bc[s] = r
     return r