Contents
Python – bytearray()
Python bytearray() builtin function is used to create a mutable sequence of bytes. Each element of the bytearray object can be in the range of 0 <= x < 256.
In this tutorial, you will learn the syntax of bytearray() function, and then its usage with the help of example programs.
Syntax
The syntax of bytearray() function is
bytearray(source, encoding, errors)where
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| source | The source for creating bytearray object. If source is an integer, then bytearray() returns a byte array of this size. If source is string, then bytearray() returns byte array created using the characters in the string, and specified encoding. |
| encoding | The encoding to be used, if source is a string. |
| errors | The action to be performed if encoding fails. |
Note: Since bytearray object is mutable, individual bytes of the bytearray object can be modified.
Examples
1. Create bytearray object of size 10
In the following program, we create a bytearay object of size 10. The initial value of each byte would be 0, in hexadecimal that would be \x00.
Output
bytearray(b'\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00')2. Create bytearray from a string
In the following program, we pass a string value to bytearray() function, to create bytearray object from the given string. We specify the encoding 'utf-8' as second argument.
Output
bytearray(b'hello world')3. Modify bytearray
We can modify the elements of the bytearray, which are bytes. You may assign new values to the elements of bytearray referenced by the index.
Python Program
x = bytearray('hello world', 'utf-8')
x[2] = 77
x[3] = 78
x[4] = 79
print(x)Output
bytearray(b'heMNO world')Summary
In this tutorial of Python Examples, we learned the syntax of bytearray() function, and how to create a bytearray object of specific size, or a bytearray object initialised using string argument, with examples.