- Convert a String to Binary in Python
- Method 1: Using the bin() function
- Output:
- Method 2: Using the bytearray() function
- Output:
- Method 3: Using the struct.pack() function
- Output:
- Method 4: Using the ord() function and bitwise operations
- Output:
- Conclusion:
- Related Post
- Python | Convert String to Binary
- Python3
- Python3
- Python: 3 Ways to Convert a String to Binary Codes
- Using the ord() function and string formatting
- Using the bytearray() function
- Using the bin() and ord() functions
- Conclusion
Convert a String to Binary in Python
The binary is a base-2 number system that represents data using only two digits, typically 0 and 1. It is used in computers and other electronic devices to store and transmit information. Converting a string to binary is a common task in programming, especially in the field of cryptography and data security. Python is a versatile programming language that offers several ways to convert a string to binary.
In this article, we will explore various methods to convert a string to binary in Python, along with their advantages and disadvantages.
Method 1: Using the bin() function
The simplest method to convert a string to binary in Python is to use the built-in bin() function. This function takes an integer or a string as an argument and returns its binary representation as a string prefixed with » 0b «.
Here is an example program that demonstrates the use of the bin() function:
str = "Hello, World!" binary = ''.join(format(ord(i), '08b') for i in str) print(binary)
Output:
01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00101100 00100000 01010111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00100001
In this program, we first define a string variable «str» that contains the text «Hello, World!». We then use the join() method to concatenate the binary representations of each character in the string. To convert a character to its binary representation, we use the ord() function, which returns the ASCII value of the character as an integer. We then format this integer as an 8-bit binary string using the format() function with the ’08b’ format specifier. Finally, we concatenate all the binary strings using the join() method, resulting in a single binary string.
Method 2: Using the bytearray() function
Another method to convert a string to binary in Python is to use the bytearray() function. This function takes a string as an argument and returns a bytearray object that represents the string as a sequence of bytes. Each byte is represented as an integer between 0 and 255.
Here is an example program that demonstrates the use of the bytearray() function:
str = "Hello, World!" binary = ''.join(format(byte, '08b') for byte in bytearray(str, encoding='utf-8')) print(binary)
Output:
01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00101100 00100000 01010111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00100001
In this program, we first define a string variable «str» that contains the text «Hello, World!». We then use the bytearray() function to convert the string to a sequence of bytes. We specify the encoding as ‘utf-8′ to ensure that the string is encoded using the UTF-8 encoding scheme, which is the default encoding for Python strings. We then iterate over each byte in the bytearray using a for loop and format each byte as an 8-bit binary string using the format() function with the ’08b’ format specifier. Finally, we concatenate all the binary strings using the join() method, resulting in a single binary string.
Method 3: Using the struct.pack() function
The struct module in Python provides a powerful set of functions to convert between binary data and Python objects. The pack() function in this module can be used to convert a string to binary. This function takes a format string and one or more arguments, and returns a string containing the binary representation of the arguments.
Here is an example program that demonstrates the use of the struct.pack() function:
import struct str = "Hello, World!" binary = ''.join(format(byte, '08b') for byte in struct.pack('!<>s'.format(len(str)), str.encode())) print(binary)
Output:
01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00101100 00100000 01010111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00100001
In this program, we first import the struct module. We then define a string variable «str» that contains the text «Hello, World!». We use the len() function to get the length of the string, and then use the format() method to create a format string that specifies the length of the string and the byte order as network byte order (big-endian). We then encode the string using the encode() method to convert it to bytes. Finally, we use the struct.pack() function to pack the bytes into a binary string, and format each byte as an 8-bit binary string using the format() function with the ’08b’ format specifier. We concatenate all the binary strings using the join() method, resulting in a single binary string.
Method 4: Using the ord() function and bitwise operations
Another method to convert a string to binary in Python is to use the ord() function and bitwise operations. This method involves converting each character in the string to its ASCII value using the ord() function, and then using bitwise operations to obtain its binary representation.
Here is an example program that demonstrates the use of the ord() function and bitwise operations:
str = "Hello, World!" binary = ''.join(format(ord(i), '08b') for i in str) print(binary)
Output:
01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00101100 00100000 01010111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00100001
In this program, we first define a string variable «str» that contains the text «Hello, World!». We then iterate over each character in the string using a for loop and convert each character to its ASCII value using the ord() function. We then format this value as an 8-bit binary string using the format() function with the ’08b’ format specifier. Finally, we concatenate all the binary strings using the join() method, resulting in a single binary string.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Python provides several methods to convert a string to binary, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The simplest and most straightforward method is to use the built-in bin() function, but this adds a «0b» prefix to the binary string. Another method is to use the bytearray() function, which is more flexible and allows you to access each byte in the binary sequence individually. The struct.pack() function is a powerful method that allows you to pack multiple values into a single binary string, which is useful when working with binary data formats such as network protocols and file formats. Finally, the ord() function and bitwise operations can also be used to convert a string to binary.
It is important to choose the appropriate method based on the specific requirements of your program. By understanding these different methods, you can easily convert a string to binary in Python and work with binary data effectively.
Related Post
Python | Convert String to Binary
Data conversion have always been widely used utility and one among them can be conversion of a string to it’s binary equivalent. Let’s discuss certain ways in which this can be done.
Method #1 : Using join() + ord() + format() The combination of above functions can be used to perform this particular task. The ord function converts the character to it’s ASCII equivalent, format converts this to binary number and join is used to join each converted character to form a string.
Python3
The original string is : GeeksforGeeks The string after binary conversion : 01000111011001010110010101101011011100110110011001101111011100100100011101100101011001010110101101110011
Time Complexity: O(N) where N is the lenght of the input string.
Auxiliary Space: O(N)
Method #2 : Using join() + bytearray() + format() This method is almost similar to the above function. The difference here is that rather than converting the character to it’s ASCII using ord function, the conversion at once of string is done by bytearray function.
Python3
The original string is : GeeksforGeeks The string after binary conversion : 01000111011001010110010101101011011100110110011001101111011100100100011101100101011001010110101101110011
Method #3 : Using join() + bin() + zfill()
we define a function str_to_binary(string) that takes in a string as its input.
We then create an empty list called binary_list, which will be used to store the binary conversions of each character in the input string.
We then use a for loop to iterate through each character in the input string. For each character, we use the ord() function to convert it to its ASCII equivalent, and then use the bin() function to convert that integer to a binary string. The bin() function returns a string with a ‘0b’ prefix, so we use list slicing to remove that prefix.
After that we use the zfill(8) method to pad the binary conversion with leading zeroes until it reaches a length of 8. The zfill() method pads the string on the left with a specified character (in this case, ‘0’) until it reaches the desired length.
Then we append the binary conversion to the binary_list and after that we join all the binary values in the list and return as a single string by using join() method.
Finally, we test the function with an example input of the string “GeeksforGeeks”. The function returns the binary string representation of the input string.
Python: 3 Ways to Convert a String to Binary Codes
Binary codes (binary, binary numbers, or binary literals) are a way of representing information using only two symbols: 0 and 1. They are like a secret language that computers are able to understand. By combining these symbols in different patterns, we can represent numbers, letters, and other data.
This concise, example-based article will walk you through 3 different approaches to turning a given string into binary in Python.
Using the ord() function and string formatting
- Loop through each character in the string.
- Convert each character to its corresponding Unicode code using the ord() function.
- Convert the Unicode code to binary using the format() function with a format specifier.
- Concatenate the binary codes to form the final binary string.
input = "Sling Academy" binary_codes = ' '.join(format(ord(c), 'b') for c in input) print(binary_codes)
1010011 1101100 1101001 1101110 1100111 100000 1000001 1100011 1100001 1100100 1100101 1101101 1111001
Using the bytearray() function
- Convert the string to a bytearray object, which represents the string as a sequence of bytes.
- Iterate over each byte in the bytearray.
- Convert each byte to binary using the format() function with a format specifier.
- Concatenate the binary codes to form the final binary string.
my_string = "Sling Academy" byte_array = bytearray(my_string, encoding='utf-8') binary_codes = ' '.join(bin(b)[2:] for b in byte_array) print(binary_codes)
1010011 1101100 1101001 1101110 1100111 100000 1000001 1100011 1100001 1100100 1100101 1101101 1111001
Using the bin() and ord() functions
This technique can be explained as follows:
- Iterate over each character in the string.
- Convert each character to its corresponding Unicode code using the ord() function.
- Use the bin() function to convert the Unicode code to binary.
- Remove the leading 0b prefix from each binary code.
- Concatenate the binary codes to form the final binary string.
Thanks to Python’s concise syntax, our code is very succinct:
text = "Sling Academy" binary_string = ' '.join(bin(ord(char))[2:] for char in text) print(binary_string)
1010011 1101100 1101001 1101110 1100111 100000 1000001 1100011 1100001 1100100 1100101 1101101 1111001
Conclusion
You’ve learned some methods to transform a given string into binary in Python. All of them are neat and delicate. Choose the one you like to go with. Happy coding & have a nice day!