I haven't done any benchmarks, but this recipe "works for me".
The short version: use '%x' % val
, then unhexlify
the result. The devil is in the details, though, as unhexlify
requires an even number of hex digits, which %x
doesn't guarantee. See the docstring, and the liberal inline comments for details.
from binascii import unhexlify
def long_to_bytes (val, endianness='big'):
"""
Use :ref:`string formatting` and :func:`~binascii.unhexlify` to
convert ``val``, a :func:`long`, to a byte :func:`str`.
:param long val: The value to pack
:param str endianness: The endianness of the result. ``'big'`` for
big-endian, ``'little'`` for little-endian.
If you want byte- and word-ordering to differ, you're on your own.
Using :ref:`string formatting` lets us use Python's C innards.
"""
# one (1) hex digit per four (4) bits
width = val.bit_length()
# unhexlify wants an even multiple of eight (8) bits, but we don't
# want more digits than we need (hence the ternary-ish 'or')
width += 8 - ((width % 8) or 8)
# format width specifier: four (4) bits per hex digit
fmt = '%%0%dx' % (width // 4)
# prepend zero (0) to the width, to zero-pad the output
s = unhexlify(fmt % val)
if endianness == 'little':
# see http://stackoverflow.com/a/931095/309233
s = s[::-1]
return s
...and my nosetest unit tests ;-)
class TestHelpers (object):
def test_long_to_bytes_big_endian_small_even (self):
s = long_to_bytes(0x42)
assert s == '\x42'
s = long_to_bytes(0xFF)
assert s == '\xff'
def test_long_to_bytes_big_endian_small_odd (self):
s = long_to_bytes(0x1FF)
assert s == '\x01\xff'
s = long_to_bytes(0x201FF)
assert s == '\x02\x01\xff'
def test_long_to_bytes_big_endian_large_even (self):
s = long_to_bytes(0xab23456c8901234567)
assert s == '\xab\x23\x45\x6c\x89\x01\x23\x45\x67'
def test_long_to_bytes_big_endian_large_odd (self):
s = long_to_bytes(0x12345678901234567)
assert s == '\x01\x23\x45\x67\x89\x01\x23\x45\x67'
def test_long_to_bytes_little_endian_small_even (self):
s = long_to_bytes(0x42, 'little')
assert s == '\x42'
s = long_to_bytes(0xFF, 'little')
assert s == '\xff'
def test_long_to_bytes_little_endian_small_odd (self):
s = long_to_bytes(0x1FF, 'little')
assert s == '\xff\x01'
s = long_to_bytes(0x201FF, 'little')
assert s == '\xff\x01\x02'
def test_long_to_bytes_little_endian_large_even (self):
s = long_to_bytes(0xab23456c8901234567, 'little')
assert s == '\x67\x45\x23\x01\x89\x6c\x45\x23\xab'
def test_long_to_bytes_little_endian_large_odd (self):
s = long_to_bytes(0x12345678901234567, 'little')
assert s == '\x67\x45\x23\x01\x89\x67\x45\x23\x01'