python struct pack double

Question

I want to convert -123.456 into a C double for network transmission in python. So I tried this:

struct.pack('d', -123.456)

I get this as a result:

'w\xbe\x9f\x1a/\xdd^\xc0'

Obviously there is some hex in there, but what is with the w, /, and ^ sprinkled in there?

If you want to see them in hex, try this: struct.pack('d', -123.456).hex(" "): Out[37]: '77 be 9f 1a 2f dd 5e c0' — Youngmin Kim
– Youngmin Kim, Commented Jun 28, 2023 at 0:46

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams · Accepted Answer · 2010-01-05 20:34:27Z

2

They are, respectively, a "w", "/", and "^". Some byte sequences do correspond to ASCII characters.

answered Jan 5, 2010 at 20:34

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1 Comment

Upvoted, it might surprise people, but ASCII chars are numbers too.