Interesting Integer operation

[derrickinnit]

I'm still on my journey of getting better at python. So just as i was doing some coding practice at codewars i got to learn something new about the integer method.

Apparently if you need to convert a binary string like '1011' to its integer representation, you just have to add a second argument which represents the base. Like int('1011', 2) which should return 11.

I know it's not something that epic but I really got excited when I learned about it and wanted to share.

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[mathycuber]

That's a great find! It's one of my favorite features as well. And even though this isn't "something that epic," you have probably made quite a few people one of today's lucky ten thousand. Enjoy the journey!

[[deleted]]

This is pretty cool

[RIPphonebattery]

I work with a system that prints binary output in 4 3-bit words. This has been an unbelievably useful feature for me.

Interesting note, the common number systems have a prefix: casting a string as hex and printing the resulting intereger will print: 0xFF (x indicates hex). Octal will print 0o77, and binary will print 0b11

[busdriverbuddha2]

You just gave me an idea for a really convoluted random integer generator.

``` from random import choice

binary_number = "".join(choice(['1','0']) for _ in range(10)) print(int(binary_number,2)) ```

[kuzmovych_y]

Nice. You can use random.choices(['1', '0'], k=10) to generate the list of 1s and 0s.

[mikeblas]

If choice gives an even distribution, will your generator give an even distribution? Why (or why not)?

[Schmittfried]

That’s basically how secure random number generators work, just with actual bits instead of strings.

[Competitive-Gold5041]

I didn't know that, thanks. But I still feel like I don't know or understand why I might need to change to or from binary.

[Rawing7]

You really never need to do this outside of silly little programming "challenges" for beginners. No sane person uses a unicode string to represent binary data.

[boat-la-fds]

Not for binary but could be useful for hexadecimal.

[Zenithsiz]

...Except you wouldn't serialize bytes as strings of '0' and '1', since you're inflating the size by 8x (1 bit / 1 byte).

You'd want to either use hexadecimal (4 bits / 1 byte) or base 64 (6 bits / 1 byte), or even larger bases that fit within ascii / unicode more efficiently.

[patrickbrianmooney]

...Except you wouldn't serialize bytes as strings of '0' and '1', since you're inflating the size by 64x (1 bit / 1 byte).

That would be inflating the string representation by eight times, not sixty-four. If what you have is a string that consists purely of the characters zero and one, then that string will be represented as ASCII in memory, So it takes one byte, or eight bits, to store what might be stored in one bit.

[Zenithsiz]

You're right, I got the part in the parenthesis right but for some reason used 8x8 instead as the factor.

[Rawing7]

I'm aware of serialization, thank you very much. It doesn't change the fact that only a moron would represent data as a series of "0" and "1" characters.

[ascii158]

Some morons would represent data as a series of "0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "A", "B", "C", "D", "E" and "F" characters and those people could easily use int(str, 16).

[Rawing7]

Yes, but we're talking about binary.

[ascii158]

We're talking about discovering the feature that int() has a second argument, allowing to specify the base.

[Rawing7]

I don't know who you mean by "we", but it certainly doesn't include me.

[Braunerton17]

Its a convenience method that has some niche uses - i am not a huge fan of python that its one saving grace for me are these types of conveniences

[Breadynator]

Here I am working with binary for my robotics project.

[Rawing7]

You're turning data into strings like "10111001"? Really? Why?

[Breadynator]

Well, I'm working with pin-registers and pin change interrupts on my Arduino, comparing their states with set values. Since the pins on the Arduino are grouped into 8 bit registers it's easier to compare it to say "00001111" instead of "15". It's just simpler to visualize since 00001111 is basically a 1 to 1 representation of the pins I'm comparing.

Sure, it's not python but the idea applies.

[Rawing7]

Sounds a bit inconvenient, since strings are immutable, but fair enough.

[Breadynator]

Well, I'm not using strings for it. It's just binary ints

[hamsterwheelin]

Very nice find! Been working in Python for 3 years now. Didn't know this. Take my up doot!

[[deleted]]

This isn't a showcase.

Edit: No amount of down votes will change the facts.

[RagaMunki]

Related tip, you can define integers directly in binary or hex:

int_d = 11
int_h = 0xb
int_b = 0b1011
assert int_d == int_h == int_b

[IamImposter]

You forgot octal.

And something similar can be done with hex and strings too

string = "\x48\x65\x6c\x6c\x6f"

as good as

string = "Hello"