Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!goblin3!goblin2!goblin.stu.neva.ru!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed6.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!post.news.xs4all.nl!not-for-mail
Return-Path: <python@mrabarnett.plus.com>
X-Original-To: python-list@python.org
Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org
X-Spam-Status: OK 0.017
X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 0.97; '*S*': 0.00; 'subject:data': 0.07; 'character,': 0.09; 'continuation': 0.09; 'messing': 0.09; 'pretend': 0.09; 'subject:string': 0.09; 'utf-8': 0.09; 'python': 0.11; 'assume': 0.12; '>the': 0.16; 'ascii': 0.16; 'encoding.': 0.16; 'from:addr:mrabarnett.plus.com': 0.16; 'from:addr:python': 0.16; 'from:name:mrab': 0.16; 'message-id:@mrabarnett.plus.com': 0.16; 'received:84.92': 0.16; 'received:84.92.122': 0.16; 'received:84.92.122.60': 0.16; 'subject:changing': 0.16; 'sure.': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.21; 'header:In-Reply-To:1': 0.22; 'header:User- Agent:1': 0.23; 'convert': 0.23; 'that.': 0.28; 'operations.': 0.29; 'safely': 0.29; 'vice': 0.29; 'asking': 0.29; 'character': 0.30; 'chris': 0.32; 'subject: (': 0.33; 'byte': 0.33; 'bytes': 0.33; 'could': 0.34; 'there': 0.35; 'received:84': 0.35; 'things': 0.36; 'subject:)': 0.36; 'but': 0.36; 'does': 0.36; 'next': 0.38; 'something': 0.38; 'goes': 0.38; 'correct': 0.38; 'being': 0.39; "can't": 0.39; 'to:addr:python-list': 0.39; 'think': 0.40; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.40; 'single': 0.61; 'more': 0.63; 'strings': 0.66; 'understood': 0.66; 'header:Reply-To:1': 0.66; 'direct': 0.70; 'reply-to:no real name:2**0': 0.72; '256': 0.84; 'encoding,': 0.84; 'recreate': 0.84; 'reply-to:addr:python.org': 0.84; 'such,': 0.84; 'summarized': 0.84; 'technically': 0.84; 'encounter': 0.91
X-CM-Score: 0.00
X-CNFS-Analysis: v=2.0 cv=Dp/UCRD+ c=1 sm=1 a=0nF1XD0wxitMEM03M9B4ZQ==:17 a=rXS5J2IKs6wA:10 a=A37g47N46L0A:10 a=OUOv7kDek9cA:10 a=8nJEP1OIZ-IA:10 a=cUb0p1ca0q5EZsskVAYA:9 a=V5qsgsLWQ1GW0bLcLkQA:7 a=wPNLvfGTeEIA:10 a=0nF1XD0wxitMEM03M9B4ZQ==:117
X-AUTH: mrabarnett:2500
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:50:01 +0100
From: MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:11.0) Gecko/20120312 Thunderbird/11.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: python-list@python.org
Subject: Re: "convert" string to bytes without changing data (encoding)
References: <9tg21lFmo3U1@mid.dfncis.de> <mailman.1065.1332925364.3037.python-list@python.org> <jkvb5a$88d$1@rumours.uwaterloo.ca> <4f73504c$0$29981$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <jkvktq$u16$1@rumours.uwaterloo.ca> <5B80DD153D7D744689F57F4FB69AF47409291BEC@SCACMX008.exchad.jpmchase.net>
In-Reply-To: <5B80DD153D7D744689F57F4FB69AF47409291BEC@SCACMX008.exchad.jpmchase.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12
Precedence: list
Reply-To: python-list@python.org
List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language <python-list.python.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-list>, <mailto:python-list-request@python.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list>
List-Post: <mailto:python-list@python.org>
List-Help: <mailto:python-list-request@python.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list>, <mailto:python-list-request@python.org?subject=subscribe>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Message-ID: <mailman.1096.1332964201.3037.python-list@python.org>
Lines: 28
NNTP-Posting-Host: 2001:888:2000:d::a6
X-Trace: 1332964201 news.xs4all.nl 6880 [2001:888:2000:d::a6]:49373
X-Complaints-To: abuse@xs4all.nl
Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:22311

On 28/03/2012 20:02, Prasad, Ramit wrote:
>>  >The right way to convert bytes to strings, and vice versa, is via
>>  >encoding and decoding operations.
>>
>>  If you want to dictate to the original poster the correct way to do
>>  things then you don't need to do anything more that.  You don't need to
>>  pretend like Chris Angelico that there's isn't a direct mapping from
>>  the his Python 3 implementation's internal respresentation of strings
>>  to bytes in order to label what he's asking for as being "silly".
>
> It might be technically possible to recreate internal implementation,
> or get the byte data. That does not mean it will make any sense or
> be understood in a meaningful manner. I think Ian summarized it
> very well:
>
>>You can't generally just "deal with the ascii portions" without
>>knowing something about the encoding.  Say you encounter a byte
>>greater than 127.  Is it a single non-ASCII character, or is it the
>>leading byte of a multi-byte character?  If the next character is less
>>than 127, is it an ASCII character, or a continuation of the previous
>>character?  For UTF-8 you could safely assume ASCII, but without
>>knowing the encoding, there is no way to be sure.  If you just assume
>>it's ASCII and manipulate it as such, you could be messing up
>>non-ASCII characters.
>
> Technically, ASCII goes up to 256 but they are not A-z letters.
>
Technically, ASCII is 7-bit, so it goes up to 127.