Can string formatting be used to convert an integer to its binary form ?

[Georg Brandl]

Neil Cerutti wrote:
> On 2006-09-29, Steve Holden <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote:
>> MonkeeSage wrote:
>>> So far as unobfuscated versions go, how about the simple:
>>> 
>>> def to_bin(x):
>>>   out = []
>>>   while x > 0:
>>>     out.insert(0, str(x % 2))
>>>     x = x / 2
>>>   return ''.join(out)
>>> 
>>> Regards,
> 
> It was surprising that
> 
>>>> i = int("111010101", 2)
> 
> is a one-way operation.
> 
>>>> s = str(i, 2)
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
> TypeError: str() takes at most 1 argument (2 given)

str() is not only for converting integers, but all other types too.
An explicit argument for this special case is not Pythonic IMO.

Georg