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