python django decode array html codes to readable text

Question

I receive a bunch of binary data and I want it be become a readable string again.

# Get data length in bits
dataLen = headerLen + (payLoadLen * 8) - bytes.pos
if dataLen > 0:
        eventData = []
    for i in range(dataLen / 8):
        eventData.append(bytes.read(8).int)
    m.setEventData(eventData)
    logging.debug("[D] Event data: %s" % eventData)

which results in a log like:

[D] Event data: [87, 84, 94, 87, 44, 36, 70, 77, 83, 52, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 13, 10, 87, 84, 94, 87, 44, 36, 70, 77, 83, 49, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 44, 48, 13, 10]

If you look http://www.asciitable.com/, I know it's correct. The first characters are indeed WT^W,FMS...

How can I change this code so that the logging has a more human readable string?

Answer 1

You need to convert the codes into string characters and then join the characters together:

myString = ''.join(map(chr, eventData))

If you have a hard time understanding what the code above does look at the code below - it's quite similar. Both versions use chr() to convert every numerical ASCI code to one-character string and then join the strings together. The only difference is, in the former version I replaced map() with a simple for loop.

characters = []
for code in eventData:
    characters.append(chr(code))
myString = ''.join(characters)

Answer 2

To decode the characters, you will want to use the chr builtin. To join them together, you will want to use the join function from the string library.

# Get data length in bits
dataLen = headerLen + (payLoadLen * 8) - bytes.pos
if dataLen > 0:
        eventData = []
    for i in range(dataLen / 8):
        eventData.append(bytes.read(8).int)
    m.setEventData(eventData)
    c = []
    for p in eventData:
        c.append(chr(p))
    out = "".join(c)
    logging.debug("[D] Event data pre: %s" % eventData)
    logging.debug("[D] Event data post: %s" % out)