Python Binary conversion

Question

I'm trying to convert some binary output from a file to different types, and I keep seeing odd things.

For instance, I have:

value = '\x11'

If you do

bin(ord(value))

you get the output

'0b10001'

whereas I was hoping to get

'0b00010001'

I'm basically trying to read in a 32 byte header, turn it into 1's and 0's, so I can grab various bits that have different meanings.

Answer 1

Why not just use bitwise operators?

def is_bit_set(i, x):
 """Check if the i-th bit in x is set"""
 return x & (1 << i) > 0

Answer 2

To get the desired output, try:

"0b{:08b}".format(ord(value))

If efficiency is your concern, it's recommended to use native binary representation instead of literal(string) binary representation, for bitwise operation is much more compact and efficient.

Answer 3

format(ord('\x11'), '08b') will get you 00010001, which should be close enough to what you want.