[Tutor] Hex to Str - still an open issue

Pierre Barbier de Reuille pierre.barbier at cirad.fr
Tue Feb 8 11:12:22 CET 2005


MMmmhh ... no !

The number you wrote is equivalent to '010' and any number beginning by 
'0' and not followed by "x" will be considered octal. So "10" in base 8 
is ... 8 :)

If you want to convert a number from base 2 to base 10 write :

 >>> int("0000000010", 2)
2

Pierre

Johan Geldenhuys a écrit :
> Hi everybody,
> I used binary.py and is a bit puzzled by the results I get when
> comparing the binary of decimal 2 and the value I get when I convert the
> binary to an int.
> 
> 
>>>>binary(2)
> 
> '00000000000000000000000000000010'
> 
>>>>int(00000000000000000000000000000010)
> 
> 8
> 
> 
> Isn't the int value of this binary string supposd to be '2' and not '8'?
> 
> Johan  
> On Sat, 2005-02-05 at 17:48, Kent Johnson wrote:
> 
> 
>>Liam,
>>
>>I think you misunderstand what endianness is.
>>
>>Big-endian and little-endian refer to the way a number is stored as bytes in the underlying memory 
>>of the computer. This is not something you generally need to worry about in a Python program.
>>
>>For example, consider the number 0x12345678. On most modern computers this will be stored in four 
>>consecutive bytes of computer memory. The individual bytes will contain the values 0x12, 0x34, 0x56, 
>>0x78. The question is, what is the order of those bytes in memory? On a big-endian computer, the 
>>most significant byte - 0x12 - is stored at the lowest memory address, so the sequence of bytes will 
>>be 0x12, 0x34, 0x56, 0x78. On a little-endian computer, the least-significant byte is stored at the 
>>lowest address, and the order will be reversed: 0x78, 0x56, 0x34, 0x12.
>>
>>Most programming languages will hide this detail from you most of the time. Even in assembly 
>>language, you generally load and store integers without worrying about endianness. Math operations 
>>just do the right thing so you don't have to worry about it.
>>
>>Endianness becomes an issue when you want to convert between representations, and when binary data 
>>is shared between computers which may have different endianness.
>>
>>For example in a C program you might want to get the high byte of an integer when you know the 
>>address of the integer. The desired byte will be at (address+0) or (address+3) depending on the 
>>endianness of the hardware.
>>
>>Similarly, if an array of integers is written to a file in a binary representation (not as ASCII 
>>strings representing the integers, but as 32-bit values), then to correctly read the file you have 
>>to know the endianness of the data in the file.
>>
>>
>>OK, so what does this have to do with converting a number to binary in Python? Well, nothing, 
>>actually. First, note that 'binary representation' can mean two different things. In the description 
>>above, I was talking about the actual bit pattern stored in the computer. Python works with binary 
>>numbers all the time, in this sense, but it is under the hood. The other meaning of 'binary 
>>representation' is that of a base-2 string representation of a number.
>>
>>So if you ask, "How do I convert a number to binary?" you can mean either of these.
>>
>>The first one is trivial. If you have a decimal string representation of the number, use int() to 
>>convert it to binary. If you have an integer already, it's already *in* binary, so you don't have to 
>>do anything!
>>
>>So, "How do I convert a number to binary?", to be interesting, must mean "How do I convert an 
>>integer to a base-2 string representation?" And how do you do this? Well, you figured out one way 
>>using the mathematical properties of integers. These operations are independent of endianness, and 
>>so is the desired result.
>>
>>The base-2 string representation of  the number (whose base-16 string representation is) 0x1234 is 
>>'0001001000110100'. The order of digits here is determined by our convention of writing the most 
>>significant digits on the left, not by the endianness of the underlying computer.
>>
>>OK, this is long enough, I hope I have shed some light...
>>Kent
>>
>>
>>
>>Liam Clarke wrote:
>>
>>>Jacob - just for you, begin your agitation for the next release please ;)
>>>
>>>binstring.py, as attached. 
>>>(also pasted up - http://www.rafb.net/paste/results/5feItM57.html)
>>>
>>>Creating this, was just a brain teaser, but I was thinking 'what if I
>>>wanted to make this for the standard library.'
>>>
>>>And so you can see, I had to include a flag for endianess. But that
>>>was really a cheap trick. If this was going into a standard library,
>>>I'd want to query the OS for endianess. As for the bits, once again,
>>>32 bit is the norm, but 64 bit is here and spreading.
>>>
>>>Also, should it display 11111111 as 255 or 256? Both are valid,
>>>depending on context.
>>>
>>>Thirdly, if I can do it in 2 minutes, (well, the main part), then
>>>should they bother putting it in the standard library considering
>>>also,
>>>
>>>- How often, really, are you going to need to present a decimal or hex
>>>as a binary string.
>>>
>>>Lastly - this only does base 10 to base 2. Should I include a base 6
>>>to base 2, base 8 to base 2, base 10 to 6, 10 to 8, 8 to 6?
>>>
>>>I wouldn't like to write for the standard library, because you can
>>>never please everyone.
>>>
>>>But yeah, feel free to use the above, just keep my doc strings and comments.
>>>
>>>Regards,
>>>
>>>Liam Clarke
>>>
>>>On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 23:30:19 -0500, Jacob S. <keridee at jayco.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>>The binary value is the same as the hex value.
>>>>>The binary representation is 000111110100, but
>>>>>unfortunately Python doesn't support binary in
>>>>>its string formatting(although it does in int()!
>>>>
>>>>Uh, question. Why not? It seems that all simple types should be included.
>>>>Since the computer stores it as binary, why shouldn't python be able to
>>>>display a
>>>>string of it in binary? That seems to be a short coming that should be added
>>>>to the
>>>>next release... IMHO of course.
>>>>Jacob Schmidt
>>>>
>>>>_______________________________________________
>>>>Tutor maillist  -  Tutor at python.org
>>>>http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>######
>>># binString.py
>>># by Liam Clarke
>>>#(Let me know when it's included in the standard library ;-))
>>>######
>>>
>>>"""Converts a integer base 10 to a string base 2"""
>>>
>>>def binary(decimalInt, bigEndian = True, bits = 32, truncExcess = False):
>>>    """
>>>Integer to be converted is essential, Endianess is an optional flag;
>>>me being a Win32 user, Endianess is big by default, defaults to a 32-bit
>>>representation, most integers in Python being 32 bit. truncExcess will 
>>>strip place-holder zeros for succintness.
>>>
>>>Oh, and it will represent 11111111 as 256, as I'm not sure whether you want
>>>to start counting for zero with this. It's a simple matter to change."""
>>>    tempList = ['0' for x in range(bits)]
>>>    
>>>    for bitPlace in range(bits, -1, -1):
>>>        if decimalInt - 2**bitPlace >= 0:
>>>            tempList[bitPlace] = '1'
>>>            decimalInt = decimalInt - 2**bitPlace
>>>    if bigEndian:
>>>        tempList.reverse()
>>>    
>>>    outPut = ''.join(tempList)
>>>    
>>>    if truncExcess:
>>>        if bigEndian:
>>>            outPut=outPut.lstrip('0')
>>>        else:
>>>            outPut=outPut.rstrip('0')
>>>    
>>>    return outPut
>>>
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>Tutor maillist  -  Tutor at python.org
>>>http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Tutor maillist  -  Tutor at python.org
>>http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Tutor maillist  -  Tutor at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor

-- 
Pierre Barbier de Reuille

INRA - UMR Cirad/Inra/Cnrs/Univ.MontpellierII AMAP
Botanique et Bio-informatique de l'Architecture des Plantes
TA40/PSII, Boulevard de la Lironde
34398 MONTPELLIER CEDEX 5, France

tel   : (33) 4 67 61 65 77    fax   : (33) 4 67 61 56 68


More information about the Tutor mailing list