Python has tools for nearly every computer-related task and converting hexadecimal values into binary values is no exception. In fact, this feat can be accomplished using standard library functions!<\/p>\n
Hexadecimal values (a.k.a. base 16 numbers) consist of characters in the range of 1-9 and a-f. All total: When working with hexadecimal and binary data, one might find the need to convert from one to another. For example, mapped caches<\/a> may use hexadecimal memory address values to calculate set number, index number, and offset values in binary form.<\/p>\n Note<\/strong>: The values are all interpreted as integers ultimately, but converting to binary can help during the design and debug phase of many low-level applications.<\/p>\n Cache design may be a poor example given the context of Python, but the utility is still here. Python is one of the world’s most popular programming languages<\/a> for good reason: it can handle nearly everything\u2014or at least find ways to accommodate. Below are several ways to convert hexadecimal values into Binary numbers in Python:<\/p>\n Python’s bin method converts an integer value into a binary value object. However, in the case that hexadecimal values include alphabetical characters (thus interpreted as a string) there’s an intermediate conversion that is required. For example:<\/p>\n This signals that Python cannot convert a string value to a binary value directly. We must first convert the string to an integer value. To do this, we take advantage of the functionality of Python’s This gives us a binary object, with a binary value, but might not be what we’re looking for exactly. For starters, the That’s looking closer to what most representations of binary numbers resemble, but there are only 5 digits. That’s because, by default, Python will display only enough digits to represent the most significant bit (MSB) and omit any leading 0’s.<\/p>\n Let’s say we’re working with 8-bit numbers and want to ensure all are displayed with a uniform number of bits. That means 8 digital places for 127 and 8 for 0. This can be accomplished using the builtin [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c, d, e, f, g]\u00a0<\/code> . Binary numbers (a.k.a. base 2 numbers) are much easier to remember: [0, 1]<\/code>. Each of these stores data in ways that can be especially useful in certain contexts. Binary values are the basis for computer numerical representation<\/a> but hexadecimal values let us represent larger values more conveniently, at least in most cases.<\/p>\nConverting Hexadecimal to Binary<\/h2>\n
1. Using the bin Builtin<\/h2>\n
# Define a hexadecimal value\r\nhex_value = \"1f\"\r\n\r\n# Convert to a binary value\r\nbin(hex_value)\r\n\r\n>>> TypeError: 'str' object cannot be interpreted as an integer<\/pre>\n
int<\/code> data type and it’s acceptance of base value specifications.<\/p>\n# Define a hexadecimal value\r\nhex_value = \"1f\"\r\n\r\n# Convert to Integer\r\nint_value = int(hex_value, base=16)\r\n>>> 28\r\n\r\n# Convert integer to a binary value\r\nbin_value = bin(int_value)\r\n>>> 0b11100<\/pre>\n
0b<\/code> prefix might be too annoying to stick around. That can be remedied by converting to a string and slicing from the second character onward like so:<\/p>\n# Define a hexadecimal value\r\nhex_value = \"1c\"\r\n\r\n# Convert to Integer\r\nint_value = int(hex_value, base=16)\r\n>>> 28\r\ntype(int_value)\r\n>>> <class 'int'>\r\n\r\n# Convert integer to a binary value\r\nbinary_value = str(bin(int_value))[2:]\r\n>>> 11100\r\ntype(binary_value)\r\n>>> <class 'str'><\/pre>\n
zfill()<\/code> method of Python strings in conjunction with what we’ve already got:<\/p>\n# Define a hexadecimal value\r\nhex_value = \"1c\"\r\n\r\n# Convert to Integer\r\nint_value = int(hex_value, base=16)\r\n>>> 28\r\n\r\n# Convert integer to a binary value\r\nbinary_value = str(bin(int_value))[2:].zfill(8)\r\n>>> 00011100<\/pre>\n