Added missing function

Author: MarcoGos

pyproject.toml

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "PyVantagePro_MarcoGos"
-version = "0.3.25"
+version = "0.3.26"
 authors = [
   { name="Salem Harrache", email="[email protected]" },
   { name="Marco Gosselink", email="[email protected]" },

pyvantagepro/__init__.py

@@ -13,5 +13,5 @@
 from .logger import LOGGER, active_logger
 from .device import VantagePro2
 
-VERSION = '0.3.25'
+VERSION = '0.3.26'
 __version__ = VERSION

pyvantagepro/compat.py

@@ -90,3 +90,11 @@ def to_char(string):
     bytes = bytes
     stdout = sys.stdout.buffer
     xrange = range
+
+
+def format_string(s, encoding='utf-8'):
+    if isinstance(s, str):
+        return s.encode(encoding)
+    if isinstance(s, basestring):
+        return s
+    return str(s)