diff --git a/python/obitools3/parsers/tab.pyx b/python/obitools3/parsers/tab.pyx
index 8d731f9..1a1c9c8 100755
--- a/python/obitools3/parsers/tab.pyx
+++ b/python/obitools3/parsers/tab.pyx
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Created on feb 20th 2018
 
 import types
 from obitools3.utils cimport __etag__
-
+from obitools3.utils cimport str2bytes
 
 def tabIterator(lineiterator, 
                 bint header = False,
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ def tabIterator(lineiterator,
                 continue
             else:
                 # TODO ??? default column names? like R?
-                keys = [i for i in range(len(line.split(sep)))]
+                keys = [str2bytes(str(i)) for i in range(len(line.split(sep)))]
                 
         while skipped < skip :
             line = next(iterator)