How to Convert a Byte array to Float in Python : 4 Steps

Do you want to convert a byte array to float in Python? If yes then you have come to the right place. In this post, you will know how to convert a byte array to float in Python using steps.

Steps to convert a byte array to float in Python

Let’s know all the steps you will follow to convert the byte array to float in Python.

Step 1: Import the required library

The first step is to import all the required libraries for the implementation of the example. In our example, I am using only the struct module. So let’s import it using the import statement.

import struct

Step 2: Create a sample byte array

The second step is to create a sample byte array that will use in the future to convert it into float.

The following line of code will use for byte array creation.

byte_array = [b'\x00', b'\x00', b'\x80', b'?']

Step 3: Convert the byte array to the binary string

The next step is to first convert the byte array to a binary string. To do this you have to use the join() function with the ‘b’. The byte array is passed as an argument for the join() function.

Use the below line of code to convert the byte array to a binary string.

binary_string = b''.join(byte_array)

Step 4: Convert the binary string to float

Now the final step is to convert the binary string to a byte array. For this, you will use the struct.unpack() function. You will pass two arguments. One is the ‘<f’ to output the type of the binary string that is float and the other is your input byte array.

The output you will get is an array. You have to select the first element.

Add the below line of code for the conversion.

float_value = struct.unpack('<f', binary_string)[0]

Full Code

import struct
byte_array = [b'\x00', b'\x00', b'\x80', b'?']
binary_string = b''.join(byte_array)
float_value = struct.unpack('<f', binary_string)[0]
print(float_value)

Output

Conclusion

Converting a byte array to float has many use cases. It helps you in dealing with binary data or network communications. Other use cases are File I/O for reading and writing binary data to files and Data Parsing and Interpretation. The above steps will convert the byte array to float in Python.

I hope you have liked this tutorial. If you have any queries then you can contact us for more help.