Convert Bytes To Bits in Python

Among the must-have computer science and programming skills, having bit-level knowledge is one of those important things that you should know what it means to understand the data change in this big world. However, a potential need often arises for the conversion of bytes and bits in digital information into alternative units. In this article, we will see through the process of bytes-to-bit conversion in Python knowing how and why it is performed.

Convert Bytes To Bits In Python

Below are some of the ways by which we can convert bytes to bits in Python:

Converting Bytes to Bits in Python Using Simple Calculation

Python streamlines the conversion through simple arithmetic operations, which are add, subtract, and also multiply.

Conversion Formula: The number of bits for a byte is 8, and to change the bytes into bits you need to times the value.

The formula is straightforward:

Bits = Bytes × 8

Example

Python3

def bytes_to_bits(byte_value):
    bits_value = byte_value * 8
    return bits_value

# Example: Convert 4 bytes to bits
bytes_value = 4
bits_result = bytes_to_bits(bytes_value)

print(f"{bytes_value} bytes is equal to {bits_result} bits.")

Output

4 bytes is equal to 32 bits.

Python Convert Bytes To Bits Using bit_length() Method

In this example, the bytes object b'\x01\x23\x45\x67\x89\xAB\xCD\xEF' is converted to an integer using int.from_bytes() with ‘big’ byte order, and the number of bits is obtained using the bit_length() method.

Python3

bytes_value1 = b'\x01\x23\x45\x67\x89\xAB\xCD\xEF'

bits_value1 = int.from_bytes(bytes_value1, byteorder='big').bit_length()

print(bits_value1)

Output

57

Convert Bytes To Bits Using Bitwise Shift

In this example, the bytes object b'\b\x16$@P' is converted to an integer by summing bitwise-shifted bytes, and the number of bits is obtained using the bit_length() method.

Python3

bytes_value3 = b'\b\x16$@P'

bits_value3 = sum(byte << (i * 8)
                  for i, byte in enumerate(reversed(bytes_value3)))

print( bits_value3.bit_length())

Output

36

Handling Binary Data in Python

In some cases, you might be handling binary data directly and python gives the struct module for the conversions between the various types of required interpretations. In this case, the struct module is implemented to transform a binary data sequence into an integer and then it is transformed into the string form through bin. Therefore, it works the best with the raw binary data.

Python3

import struct

def bytes_to_bits_binary(byte_data):
    bits_data = bin(int.from_bytes(byte_data, byteorder='big'))[2:]
    return bits_data

# Example: Convert binary data to bits
binary_data = b'\x01\x02\x03\x04'
bits_result_binary = bytes_to_bits_binary(binary_data)

print(f"Binary data: {binary_data}")
print(f"Equivalent bits: {bits_result_binary}")

Output

Binary data: b'\x01\x02\x03\x04'
Equivalent bits: 1000000100000001100000100