Is there a better way than int( byte_buffer.encode('hex'), 16 )

Question

In Python, I'm constantly using the following sequence to get an integer value from a byte buffer (in python this is a str).

I'm getting the buffer from the struct.unpack() routine. When I unpack a 'char' using

byte_buffer, = struct.unpack('c', raw_buffer)
int_value = int( byte_buffer.encode('hex'), 16 )

Is there a better way?

Answer 1

The struct module is good at unpacking binary data.

int_value = struct.unpack('>I', byte_buffer)[0]

Answer 2

Bounded to 1 byte – Noah Campbell 18 mins ago

The best way to do this then is to instantiate a struct unpacker.

from struct import Struct

unpacker = Struct("b")
unpacker.unpack("z")[0]

Note that you can change "b" to "B" if you want an unsigned byte. Also, endian format is not needed.

For anyone else who wants to know a method for unbounded integers, create a question, and tell me in the comments.

Answer 3

If we're talking about getting the integer value of a byte, then you want this:

ord(byte_buffer)

Can't understand why it isn't already suggested.