def get_string_from_bytes(byte_data, encoding="ascii"):
    """Decodes a string from DAT file byte data.
    Note that in byte form these strings are 0 terminated and this 0 is removed
    Args:
        byte_data (bytes) : the binary data to convert to a string
        encoding (string) : optional, the encoding type to use when converting
    """
    string_bytes = byte_data[0:(len(byte_data) - 1)]  # strip off the 0 at the end of the string
    string = string_bytes.decode(encoding)
    return string