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binascii Module

The binascii module contains functions for converting between binary and ASCII representations, including hex encoding and uuencoding.

Complexity Reference

Operation Time Space Notes
hexlify() O(n) O(n) n = input length
unhexlify() O(n) O(n) n = hex length
b2a_base64() O(n) O(n) Encode to base64

Binary-ASCII Conversions

Hex Encoding

import binascii

# Hex encode - O(n)
data = b'hello'
hex_str = binascii.hexlify(data)
print(hex_str)  # b'68656c6c6f'

# Hex decode - O(n)
decoded = binascii.unhexlify(hex_str)
print(decoded)  # b'hello'

Base64 Encoding

import binascii

# Encode - O(n)
data = b'binary data'
b64 = binascii.b2a_base64(data)
print(b64)

# Decode - O(n)
decoded = binascii.a2b_base64(b64)
print(decoded)