Python convert binary to file

I want to convert a bin file to txt file in python.

with open("atb.bin", "rb") as file:

     data = file.read(8)

datastring = str(data)

print(datastring)
print(' '.join(str(ord(c)) for c in datastring))

The output I get is

b'\x14\x12\x1c\x1a#\x00-d'
98 39 92 120 49 52 92 120 49 50 92 120 49 99 92 120 49 97 35 92 120 48 48 45 100 39

Now, how do I convert this to decimal and store in a txt file?

asked Apr 5, 2018 at 15:21

3

Your main mistake is doing:

datastring = str(data)

As it converts the representation of the data object to string, with b prefix and quotes, and escaping... wrong.

read your file as you're doing:

with open("atb.bin", "rb") as file:
     data = file.read(8)

now data is a bytes object, no need for ord in python 3, values are already integer. Now open a text file and dump the values (converting integers to string, decimal):

with open("out.txt", "w") as f:
   f.write(" ".join(map(str,data))):
   f.write("\n")

In python 2 you'd need to get the character code then convert to string:

   f.write(" ".join([str(ord(c)) for c in data]))

answered Apr 5, 2018 at 15:28

0

Your Python converts into text, the text representation of the 8 characters in the file.

Hence, instead of

print(' '.join(str(ord(c)) for c in datastring))

you should have put

print(' '.join(str(ord(c)) for c in data))

which you can then write to a file using standard techniques.

ie. (Python 2)

>>> data=b'\x14\x12\x1c\x1a#\x00-d'
>>> print(' '.join(str(ord(c)) for c in data))
20 18 28 26 35 0 45 100

(Python 3)

>>> data=b'\x14\x12\x1c\x1a#\x00-d'
>>> print(' '.join(str(c) for c in data))
20 18 28 26 35 0 45 100

answered Apr 5, 2018 at 15:32

MikeWMikeW

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In this Python tutorial, we will learn how to read a binary file in python, and also we will cover these topics:

• How to read a binary file to an array in Python
• How to read a binary file into a byte array in Python
• How to read a binary file line by line in Python
• Python read a binary file to Ascii
• How to read a binary file into a NumPy array in Python
• How to read a binary file into CSV in Python

Here, we will see how to read a binary file in Python.

• Before reading a file we have to write the file. In this example, I have opened a file using file = open(“document.bin”,”wb”) and used the “wb” mode to write the binary file.
• The document.bin is the name of the file.
• I have taken a variable as a sentence and assigned a sentence “This is good”, To decode the sentence, I have used sentence = bytearray(“This is good”.encode(“ascii”)).
• And to write the sentence in the file, I have used the file.write() method.
• The write() is used to write the specified text to the file. And then to close the file, I have used the file.close().

Example to write the file:

file = open("document.bin","wb")
sentence = bytearray("This is good".encode("ascii"))
file.write(sentence)
file.close()

• To read the file, I have taken the already created file document.bin and used the “rb” mode to read the binary file.
• The document.bin is the file name. And, I have using the read() method. The read() method returns the specified number of bytes from the file.

Example to read the file:

file = open("document.bin","rb")
print(file.read(4))
file.close()

In this output, you can see that I have used print(file.read(4)). Here, from the sentence, it will read only four words. As shown in the output.

Python read a binary file

You may like Python Pandas CSV Tutorial and File does not exist Python.

Python read a binary file to an array

Here, we can see how to read a binary file to an array in Python.

• In this example, I have opened a file as array.bin and used the “wb” mode to write thebinary file. The array.bin is the name of the file.
• And assigned an array as num=[2,4,6,8,10] to get the array in byte converted format, I have used bytearray(). The bytearray() method returns the byte array objects.
• To writes the array in the file, I have used the file.write(). And file.close() to close the file.

Example to write an array to the file:

file=open("array.bin","wb")
num=[2,4,6,8,10]
array=bytearray(num)
file.write(array)
file.close()

• To read the written array from the file, I have used the same file i.e,file=open(“array.bin”,”rb”).
• The “rb” mode is used to read the array from the file.
• The list() function is used to create the list object number=list(file.read(3)). The file.read() is used to read the bytes from the file.
• The file.read(3) is used to read-only three numbers from the array. The file.close() is used to close the file.

Example to read an array from the file:

file=open("array.bin","rb")
number=list(file.read(3))
print (number)
file.close()

To get the output, I have used print(number). And to close the file, I have used file.close(). In the below screenshot you can see the output.

Python read a binary file to an array

• How to Convert Python string to byte array with Examples
• Python Array with Examples
• Create an empty array in Python

Python read a binary file into a byte array

Now, we can see how to read a binary file into a byte array in Python.

• In this example, I have opened a file called sonu.bin and “rb” mode is used to read a binary file, and sonu.bin is the name of the file. Here, I have stored some data in the sonu.bin file.
• The byte = file.read(3) is used to read the file, and file.read(3) is used to read only 3 bytes from the file.
• The while loop is used to read and iterate all the bytes from the file.

Example:

file = open("sonu.bin", "rb")
byte = file.read(3)
while byte:
    print(byte)
    byte = file.read(3)

To read the byte from the file, I have used print(byte). You can refer to the below screenshot for the output.

Python read a binary file into a byte array

Python read a binary file line by line

Here, we can see how to read a binary file line by line in Python.

• In this example, I have taken a line as lines=[“Welcome to python guides\n”] and open a file named as file=open(“document1.txt”,”wb”) document1.txt is the filename.
• The “wb” is the mode used to write the binary files. The file.writelines(lines) is used to write the lines from the file.
• The writelines() returns the sequence of string to the file. The file.close() method is used to close the file.

Example to write the file:

lines=["Welcome to python guides\n"]
file=open("document1.txt","wb")
file.writelines(lines)
file.close()

• To read the written file, I have used the same filename as document1.txt, I have used file=open(“document1.txt”,”rb”) to open the file, “rb” mode is used to read the binary file and, To read the line from the file I have used line=file.readline().
• The readline() returns one line from the file.

Example to read the file:

file=open("document1.txt","rb")
line=file.readline()
print(line)
file.close()

To get the output, print(line) is used and lastly to close the file, I have used file.close().

Python read a binary file line by line

Python read a binary file to Ascii

Now, we can see how to read a binary file to Ascii in Python.

• In this example, I have opened a file named test.bin using file = open(‘test.bin’, ‘wb’), The ‘wb’ mode is used to write the binary file and I have taken a variable as a sentence and assigned a sentence = ‘Hello Python’. To encode the sentence.
• I have used file_encode = sentence.encode(‘ASCII’). To write the encoded sentence in the file, I have used the file.write(file_encode).
• The file.seek() method returns the new position. To read the written file, I have used the file.read() which returns a byte from the file.
• And then to convert the binary sentence into Ascii, I have used new_sentence = bdata. decode(‘ASCII’).

Example:

file = open('test.bin', 'wb')
sentence = 'Hello Python'
file_encode = sentence.encode('ASCII')
file.write(file_encode)
file.seek(0)
bdata = file.read()
print('Binary sentence', bdata)
new_sentence = bdata.decode('ASCII')
print('ASCII sentence', new_sentence)

To get the output as an encoded sentence, I have used print(‘ASCII sentence’, new_sentence). You can refer to the below screenshot for the output.

Python read a binary file to Ascii

Python read a binary file into a NumPy array

Here, we can see how to read a binary file into a numpy array in Python.

• In this example, I have imported a module called NumPy. The array = np.array([2,8,7]) is used to create an array, The .tofile is used to write all the array to the file. The array.bin is the name of the binary file.
• The np.fromfile is used to construct an array from the data in the file. The dtype=np.int8 is the datatype object. The output of the array changes if we change np.int8 to int32 or int64.

Example:

import numpy as np
array = np.array([2,8,7]).tofile("array.bin")
print(np.fromfile("array.bin",  dtype=np.int8))

To get the output, I have used print(np.fromfile(“array.bin”, dtype=np.int8)). The below screenshot shows the output.

Python read a binary file into a NumPy array

Python read a binary file into CSV

Here, we can see how to read binary file into csv in Python.

• In this example, I have imported a module called CSV. The CSV module is a comma-separated value module. It is used to read and write tabular data in CSV format.
• I have opened a file called lock.bin and “w” mode is used to write the file writer = csv.writer(f) is used to write the objects in the file. The lock.bin is the name of the file.
• The writer() returns the write object which converts data into a string.
• The writer.writerows is used to write all the rows into the file. To close the file, f.close() is used.

Example to write the csv file:

import csv
f = open("lock.bin", "w")
writer = csv.writer(f)
writer.writerows([["a", 1], ["b", 2], ["c", 3], ["d",4]])
f.close()

To read the CSV file, I have opened the file lock.bin in which data is already written, The ‘r‘ mode is used to read the file. To read the CSV file, I have used reader = csv.reader(file) to return a list of rows from the file.

Example to read the csv file:

import csv
with open('lock.bin', 'r') as file:
    reader = csv.reader(file)
    for row in reader:
        print(row)

To get the output I have used print(row). The below screenshot shows the output.

Python read a binary file into CSV

You may like the following Python tutorials:

• How to draw a shape in python using Turtle
• Python ask for user input (Examples)
• How to Convert Python string to byte array with Examples
• Python pass by reference or value with examples
• Python select from a list + Examples
• Union of sets Python + Examples
• Introduction to Python Interface
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In this tutorial we have learned about Python read a binary file, also we have covered these topics:

• Python read a binary file to an array
• Python read a binary file into a byte array
• Python read a binary file line by line
• Python read a binary file to Ascii
• Python read a binary file into a NumPy array
• Python read a binary file into CSV

Python is one of the most popular languages in the United States of America. I have been working with Python for a long time and I have expertise in working with various libraries on Tkinter, Pandas, NumPy, Turtle, Django, Matplotlib, Tensorflow, Scipy, Scikit-Learn, etc… I have experience in working with various clients in countries like United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Check out my profile.

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