convert floats to their 4 byte representation

[godavemon]

I've been a member for a while but I had no idea how helpful this form
is.  I had a one hour meeting and when I came back there were 4
replies.  Thanks for your help!


Scott David Daniels wrote:
> godavemon wrote:
> > I need to take floats and dump out their 4 byte hex representation.
> > This is easy with ints with the built in hex function or even better
> > for my purpose
> >
> > def hex( number, size ):
> > 	s = "%"+str(size) + "X"
> > 	return (s % number).replace(' ', '0')
>
> This should be a trifle nicer:
>      def hexx(number, size):    # don't shadow the "hex" builtin
>          s = "%0s" + str(size) + "X"
>          return s % number
>
> > but I haven't been able to find anything for floats.  Any help would be
> > great.
>
> Getting to float bytes is tougher.
> First, python Floats are C Doubles, so you probably mean 8=byte hex.
>
>      import array
>
>      def eights(number, swap=False):
>          data = array.array('d', [number])
>          if swap:
>              data.byteswap()
>          return ' '.join(hexx(ord(char), 2) for char in data.tostring())
>
>      def fours(number, swap=False):
>          data = array.array('f', [number])
>          if swap:
>              data.byteswap()
>          return ' '.join(hexx(ord(char), 2) for char in data.tostring())
> 
> --Scott David Daniels
> scott.daniels at acm.org