How do I convert a hex string to a signed int in Python 3?
The best I can come up with is
h = '9DA92DAB'
b = bytes(h, 'utf-8')
ba = binascii.a2b_hex(b)
print(int.from_bytes(ba, byteorder='big', signed=True))
Is there a simpler way? Unsigned is so much easier: int(h, 16)
BTW, the origin of the question is itunes persistent id - music library xml version and iTunes hex version
In n-bit two's complement, bits have value:
bit 0 = 20
bit 1 = 21
bit n-2 = 2n-2
bit n-1 = -2n-1
But bit n-1 has value 2n-1 when unsigned, so the number is 2n too high. Subtract 2n if bit n-1 is set:
def twos_complement(hexstr, bits):
value = int(hexstr, 16)
if value & (1 << (bits - 1)):
value -= 1 << bits
return value
print(twos_complement('FFFE', 16))
print(twos_complement('7FFF', 16))
print(twos_complement('7F', 8))
print(twos_complement('FF', 8))
Output:
-2
32767
127
-1
len(hexstr) * 4, and yes the number could be missing leading zeros so I was being explicit about the number of bits in the answer.
int.from_bytes(bytearray([0xFF,0xFE]), byteorder='big',signed=True) (first example)hex_string="FFFE"; ba=bytearray.fromhex(hex_string); val=int.from_bytes((ba), byteorder='big',signed=True); valimport struct
For Python 3 (with comments' help):
h = '9DA92DAB'
struct.unpack('>i', bytes.fromhex(h))
For Python 2:
h = '9DA92DAB'
struct.unpack('>i', h.decode('hex'))
or if it is little endian:
h = '9DA92DAB'
struct.unpack('<i', h.decode('hex'))
Converting string to bytes can be done with bytes.fromhex:
So it can be written as:
print(int.from_bytes(bytes.fromhex('9DA92DAB'), signed=True))
Output:
-1649857109
Here's a general function you can use for hex of any size:
import math
# hex string to signed integer
def htosi(val):
uintval = int(val,16)
bits = 4 * (len(val) - 2)
if uintval >= math.pow(2,bits-1):
uintval = int(0 - (math.pow(2,bits) - uintval))
return uintval
And to use it:
h = str(hex(-5))
h2 = str(hex(-13589))
x = htosi(h)
x2 = htosi(h2)
This works for 16 bit signed ints, you can extend for 32 bit ints. It uses the basic definition of 2's complement signed numbers. Also note xor with 1 is the same as a binary negate.
# convert to unsigned
x = int('ffbf', 16) # example (-65)
# check sign bit
if (x & 0x8000) == 0x8000:
# if set, invert and add one to get the negative value, then add the negative sign
x = -( (x ^ 0xffff) + 1)
Here's a function to do the above. This will extend for whatever length you provide.
def hex_to_signed(source):
"""Convert a string hex value to a signed hexidecimal value.
This assumes that source is the proper length, and the sign bit
is the first bit in the first byte of the correct length.
hex_to_signed("F") should return -1.
hex_to_signed("0F") should return 15.
"""
if not isinstance(source, str):
raise ValueError("string type required")
if 0 == len(source):
raise valueError("string is empty")
sign_bit_mask = 1 << (len(source)*4-1)
other_bits_mask = sign_bit_mask - 1
value = int(source, 16)
return -(value & sign_bit_mask) | (value & other_bits_mask)
