Python Binary String to ASCII String – and Vice Versa

Problem Formulation

In this article, you’ll learn how to convert binary string (values) to an ASCII string in Python.

For example, you may want to convert the binary string:

0110100001100101011011000110110001101111001000000111011101101111011100100110110001100100

to the ASCII text:

hello world

Using a simple Python script!

💬 Question: How would we write Python code to perform the binary to ASCII conversion and vice versa?

Solution: Integer to_bytes() and from_bytes()

To convert the binary string to an (ASCII) string, use the Integer to_bytes() method after converting the binary string to a normal integer using int() with the base=2 argument.

def bin_to_str(x):
    ''' Converts a Binary String to an (ASCII) string'''
    my_int = my_int = int(my_bin, base=2)
    my_str = my_int.to_bytes((my_int.bit_length() + 7)//8, 'big').decode()
    return my_str

my_bin = '0b0110100001100101011011000110110001101111001000000111011101101111011100100110110001100100'

my_int = bin_to_str(my_bin)
print(my_int)
# hello world

To convert the (ASCII) string back to a binary string, use the the Integer from_bytes() method on the encoded string.

def str_to_bin(x):
    ''' Converts an ASCII string to a binary string'''
    return bin(int.from_bytes(x.encode(), 'big'))


print(str_to_bin('hello world'))
# 0b110100001100101011011000110110001101111001000000111011101101111011100100110110001100100

Thanks for reading this short tutorial. ♥️

To keep learning, feel free to dive deeper into this conversion topic here and download our cheat sheets here: