Convert Hex String to Int in Python

How do I convert a hex string to an int in Python?

I may have it as "0xffff" or just "ffff".

1

12 Answers

Without the 0x prefix, you need to specify the base explicitly, otherwise there's no way to tell:

x = int("deadbeef", 16)

With the 0x prefix, Python can distinguish hex and decimal automatically.

>>> print(int("0xdeadbeef", 0))
3735928559
>>> print(int("10", 0))
10

(You must specify 0 as the base in order to invoke this prefix-guessing behavior; if you omit the second parameter int() will assume base-10.)

6

int(hexstring, 16) does the trick, and works with and without the 0x prefix:

>>> int("a", 16)
10
>>> int("0xa", 16)
10
2

Convert hex string to int in Python

I may have it as "0xffff" or just "ffff".

To convert a string to an int, pass the string to int along with the base you are converting from.

Both strings will suffice for conversion in this way:

>>> string_1 = "0xffff"
>>> string_2 = "ffff"
>>> int(string_1, 16)
65535
>>> int(string_2, 16)
65535

Letting int infer

If you pass 0 as the base, int will infer the base from the prefix in the string.

>>> int(string_1, 0)
65535

Without the hexadecimal prefix, 0x, int does not have enough information with which to guess:

>>> int(string_2, 0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 0: 'ffff'
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