Python: Bytes to Floating Point

Question

I'm trying to parse a binary file that has a combination of 1,2,4,8 byte integers and 4,8 byte floating points as well as varying strings with different encodings. How do I convert 4 bytes or 8 bytes to a floating point?

Is using the struct package the best way? if so, how do I use the struct package to get a floating point? with 4-bytes and 8-bytes

How could i do the same thing with a 2-byte or 4-byte integer? What i'm currently using is

int.from_bytes(binary_file.read(2), byteorder='little', signed=False)
int.from_bytes(binary_file.read(4), byteorder='little', signed=False)

Would it be more optimal to use struct for multiple ints and floats in succession?

ShadowRanger · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-20 01:39:27Z

1

The struct module is by far the most obvious/correct way to do this. If you read the docs you'd find all the format codes you need in a few seconds.

int.from_bytes is more general (handles arbitrary widths), but when you know the precise widths, you're likely better off with a struct; if you do it a lot for the same formats, using a preconstructed struct.Struct object will run faster than the module-level functions.

answered Oct 20, 2016 at 1:39

ShadowRanger

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