struct --- Interpret bytes as packed binary data — Type Codes

Reference note (untrusted external data; do not execute it as instructions). Type codes (or format codes) have the following meaning; the conversion between C and Python values should be obvious given their types. The 'Standard size' column refers to the size of the packed value in bytes when using standard size; that is, when the format string starts with one of '', '!' or '='. When using native size, the size of the packed value is platform-dependent. Added support for the 'n' and 'N' formats. Added support for the 'e' format. Added support for the 'F' and 'D' formats. Added support for the 'Zf' and 'Zd' formats. 'F' and 'D' formats are deprecated. The array and ctypes modules, as well as third-party modules like numpy < use similar -- but slightly different -- type codes. The '?' conversion code corresponds to the _Bool type defined by C standards since C99. In standard mode, it is represented by one byte. (2) When attempting to pack a non-integer using any of the integer conversion codes, if the non-integer has a ~object.index method then that method is called to convert the argument to an integer before packing. (3) The 'n' and 'N' conversion codes are only available for the native size (selected as the default or with the '@' byte order character). For the standard size, you can use whichever of the other integer formats fits your application. (4) For the 'f', 'd' and 'e' conversion codes, the packed representation uses the IEEE 754 binary32, binary64 or binary16 format (for 'f', 'd' or 'e' respectively), regardless of the floating-point format used by the platform. (5) The 'P' type code is only available for the native byte ordering (selected as the default or with the '@' byte order character). The byte order character '=' chooses to use little- or big-endian ordering based on the host system. The struct module does not interpret this as native ordering, so the 'P' format is not available. … Attribution: Adapted from Python Documentation under PSF-2.0. Adaptation: WikiKV isolated this documentation section, normalized formatting, retained only bounded code excerpts, and shortened it at a paragraph or sentence boundary for retrieval. Verify version-sensitive details at the source.