Python in a Nutshell

Name

fromstring

Synopsis

fromstring(data,count=None,typecode=Int)

Returns a one-dimensional array a of shape ( count ,) with data copied from the bytes of string data. When count is None, len( data ) must be a multiple of typecode’s item size, and a’s shape is (len( data )/ a .itemsize( ),). When count is not None, len( data ) must be greater than or equal to count * a .itemsize( ), and fromstring ignores data’s trailing bytes, if any.

Together with methods a .tostring and a .byteswapped (covered in the following section Section 15.6.7), function fromstring allows binary input/output of array objects. When you need to save arrays and later reload them, and don’t need to use the saved form in non-Python programs, it’s simpler and faster to use module cPickle, covered in Chapter 11. Many experienced users prefer to use a portable self-describing file format such as netCDF (see http://met-www.cit.cornell.edu/noon/ncmodule.html).