"shawn bright" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
> so i believe i do shifting here. as in i do a > (a << 4) * 32 + b > Don't use shifting to extract the bits, use a bitmask and & its much easier. If you want to extract the left-most 4 bits use 0xf0 If you want to extract the righ-most bits use 0x0f 1 & 1 = 1 1 & 0 = 0 Or more generically: 1 & A = A right = data & 0xf0 left = data & 0x0f As easy as that. Now if you need to stich the bits together you need to move one element up by 4 bits which is where shifting comes in. result = (data << 4) & right > but i am not getting what i think that i should be, and i think it's > because i am not getting rid of the bytes that i am not using. Its easier to extract the bits into a new variable using a mask as shown. > i have looked at the struct module, but can't figgure out how to do > this type of thing with it. This is not what struct is for, don't try uising it for this. even if you make it work its not the best tool. Alan G. _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor