[Tutor] how to read one bit of a byte

Luke Paireepinart rabidpoobear at gmail.com
Tue Feb 20 23:15:22 CET 2007


shawn bright wrote:
> lo there all,
>
> i am reading a binary file with open('myfile', 'rb')
>
> then i do a read(1) to read one byte. cool so far.
>
> but how do i read the individual bits of a byte
>
> i mean if i have a = read(1)
>
> how do i know what the msb of a is ?
>
> i need to know because i have to see if the msb is set and i also need 
> to know the value of the next bit.
Well, you know the value of the MSB is...
1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128
so if you divide the value by 128, and get a 1 and not a 0, then it's set.
People commonly write functions to make binary lists from values.
-Luke
>
> any tips would be greatly appreciated.
>
> thanks
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tutor maillist  -  Tutor at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
>   



More information about the Tutor mailing list