Python is a high-level, interpreted, and general-purpose dynamic programming language that focuses on code readability. The syntax allows programmers to express concepts in fewer lines of code than would be possible in languages such as C++ or Java.
Python supports multiple programming paradigms and has a large standard library. In this tutorial, we will learn how to make a string binary in Python step-by-step.
Step 1: Define the String
Firstly, we need to define the string that we wish to convert into a binary string. For this example, we will use the string “Hello World”. The Python code that defines this string is:
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str = "Hello World" |
Step 2: Use the .encode() Method
The .encode() method in Python converts the string into bytes. Python provides us with the .encode() method, which by default uses ‘utf-8’ encoding. However, .encode() these bytes are not yet in binary format.
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bytes = str.encode() |
Step 3: Convert Bytes into Binary
After converting the string into bytes, we can then convert these bytes into binary using the bin() function. However, the bin() function will return the binary string prefixed with “0b”. To remove this prefix, we will use string slicing.
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binary = ''.join(format(ord(c), 'b') for c in str) |
Complete Python Code for Making a String Binary
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str = "Hello World" bytes = str.encode() binary = ''.join(format(ord(c), 'b') for c in str) print(binary) |
Output
1001000110010111011001101111110111101110111000001100101110100
Here, the string “Hello World” has been successfully converted into a binary string by following the described steps.
Conclusion
Converting a string to binary in Python is quite straightforward. Python’s built-in functions such as .encode() and bin() make it easy to perform this conversion. Always remember to concatenate the binary values of the string characters to get the final binary representation of the entire string.
The concepts explained in this tutorial are fundamental and can be applied in various programming tasks such as in working on binary data, encryption algorithms, error detection and correction codes, etc.