How to convert a binary representation of a string back to the original string in Python?

Question

I haven't been able to find an answer to the following question: Start with a string, convert it to its binary representation. How do you get back the original string in Python?

Example:

a = 'hi us'
b = ''.join(format(ord(c), '08b') for c in a)

then b = 0110100001101001001000000111010101110011

Now I want to get 'hi us' back in Python 2.x. For example, this website accomplishes the task: http://string-functions.com/binary-string.aspx

I've seen several answers for Java, but haven't had luck implementing to Python. I've also tried b.decode(), but don't know which encoding I should use in this case.

thank you, but they use 'ascii' to decode, which is not relevant to my question — Quetzalcoatl
– Quetzalcoatl, Commented Feb 3, 2015 at 21:42

user 12321 · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-03 21:42:25Z

6

use this code:

import binascii
n = int('0110100001101001001000000111010101110011', 2)
binascii.unhexlify('%x' % n)

answered Feb 3, 2015 at 21:42

user 12321

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5 Comments

njzk2 Over a year ago

how about much longer strings ?

Quetzalcoatl Over a year ago

@user 12321, perfect! exactly what I need. thank you. will accept your answer asap

njzk2 Over a year ago

to my surprise, it does! python apparently does not have much problem with the notion of insanely large integers

Quetzalcoatl Over a year ago

any further comments on 'efficiency' would be nice. my general question would be: given, say, a string s with len(s) < 25, convert s uniquely to a numerical type, then convert back to get s.

user 12321 Over a year ago

importing binascii will help u and is pretty fast, to make a binarry number out of text use this code: import binascii bin(int(binascii.hexlify('hello'), 16)) and to make it back to string use the answer I posted to your question.

njzk2 · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-03 21:44:40Z

2

>>> print ''.join(chr(int(b[i:i+8], 2)) for i in range(0, len(b), 8))
'hi us'

Split b in chunks of 8, parse to int using radix 2, convert to char, join the resulting list as a string.

answered Feb 3, 2015 at 21:44

njzk2

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