Python byte string print incorrectly in dictionary

Question

Consider a list contains data in byte (i.e [\'\\x03\', \'\\x00\', \'\\x32\', ... ])

temp = b\'\'

for c in field_data:
   temp += c
   print \"%x\" % ord(c)


        

Answer 1

When you print a dict, it prints the braces { and } along with a representation of the contents.

>>> b = b'\x00\x0f\xff'
>>> print b
�
>>> print repr(b)
'\x00\x0f\xff'
>>> print {'test':b}
{'test': '\x00\x0f\xff'}

EDIT

The numbers 0x33 & 0x32 are the ASCII values of the characters '3' and '2'. repr will show printable ascii characters directly, while using the \x00 notation for non-printable characters.

>>> b = b'\x33\x32'
>>> print b
32
>>> print repr(b)
'32'
>>> hex(ord('3'))
'0x33'

Here's a function that I use for printing hex representations of strings

>>> def hexstr(s):
...     return '-'.join('%02x' % ord(c) for c in s)
...
>>> hexstr(b'\x00\xff\x33\x32')
'00-ff-33-32'

You might be able to subclass dict and override the __str__ representation if you want this to happen automatically.