This has been brought up many times before. The value of bin() is really rather minimal except when you're just learning about binary numbers; and then writing it yourself is a useful exercise.
I'm not saying that bin() is useless -- but IMO its (small) value doesn't warrant making, maintaining and documenting a new built-in function. --Guido On 4/21/06, Mike Traynar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've always wondered why there isn't a bin() built-in in Python. > Built-in functions already exist for converting ints to hexadecimal and > octal strings and vice versa i.e. > > s = hex() and int(s, 16) > s = oct() and int(s, 8) > > but no bin() function for binary strings > > s = ??? and int(s, 2)? > > Working with hardware I occasionally need to display an integer in > binary format, or manipulate the bits of integer. A simple example would > be reversing the order of the bits. Converting an int to binary string, > reversing the string, then converting back to an int is a simple way to > do this. Right now I use the recipe in > http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/219300 and am > happy to continue to do so, but it has always struck me as odd that > there isn't a bin() built-in. > > Mike > > PS. I'll let someone else argue the case for the tri(), quad(), > penta()... built-in functions. > > > _______________________________________________ > Python-3000 mailing list > Python-3000@python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000 > Unsubscribe: > http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-3000/guido%40python.org > -- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) _______________________________________________ Python-3000 mailing list Python-3000@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000 Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-3000/archive%40mail-archive.com
