How to change the least significant bit in Python

Asked Mar 17 '20 at 16:20

Active Mar 17 '20 at 16:20

Viewed 80 times

I'm new in Python and I would like to know how to change the least significant bit in Python.

I would like to do something like this:

mybytes = bytes(16) ## Creating the byte object filled with zeros
mybytes[0] = 1 ## Changing the least significant bit

Thanks.

asked Mar 17 '20 at 16:20

Peter S.

Your `mbytes`variable is supposed to represent what? A 128 bit integer? – guidot Mar 17 '20 at 16:25
`bytes` is a byte string, it's not intended for addressing individual bits. – Barmar Mar 17 '20 at 16:26
2

`mybytes[0]` is a byte, not a bit. – Barmar Mar 17 '20 at 16:26
Byte strings are immutable, just like character strings, you can't assign to an element. – Barmar Mar 17 '20 at 16:27
@guidot Yes, it is supposed to represent a 128 bit integer. – Peter S. Mar 17 '20 at 16:34
@Barmar yeah, I wrote mybytes[0] just to illustrate what I want. – Peter S. Mar 17 '20 at 16:37
Use a list instead of bytes. Then you can do `mybytes[0] |= 1` to set the least significant bit of the least significant byte. – Barmar Mar 17 '20 at 16:41
`mybytes = [0] * 16` – Barmar Mar 17 '20 at 16:42
```foo = bytes(16)``` and then ```foo = [x ^ 1 if i == len(foo)-1 else x for i, x in enumerate(foo)]``` then ```foo = bytes(foo)``` – neutrino_logic Mar 17 '20 at 16:43
Thank you all for your valuable answers ! :) – Peter S. Mar 18 '20 at 17:12

0 Answers0