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How do I read (or write) binary data?
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How do I read (or write) binary data?
or complex data formats, it's best to use the struct module. It allows you to take a string containing binary data (usually numbers) and convert it to Python objects; and vice versa.
For example, the following code reads two 2-byte integers and one 4-byte integer in big-endian format from a file:
import struct
f = open(filename, "rb") # Open in binary mode for portability
s = f.read(8)
x, y, z = struct.unpack(">hhl", s)
The '>' in the format string forces big-endian data; the letter 'h' reads one "short integer" (2 bytes), and 'l' reads one "long integer" (4 bytes) from the string.
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