In one of your comments you indicated that the binary number represents a float in 8 byte long IEEE 754 binary64 format. However that is inconsistent with the -0b1110 value you showed as an example, so I've ignored it and used my own which is in the proper format as example input data for testing the answer shown below.
Essentially what is done is first the binary string is converted into an integer value, then next into a string of raw bytes which is passed to struct.unpack() for final conversion to a floating point value. The bin_to_float() function shown below drives the process. Although not illustrated, binary input string arguments can be prefixed with '0b'.
from codecs import decode
import struct
def bin_to_float(b):
""" Convert binary string to a float. """
bf = int_to_bytes(int(b, 2), 8) # 8 bytes needed for IEEE 754 binary64.
return struct.unpack('>d', bf)[0]
def int_to_bytes(n, length): # Helper function
""" Int/long to byte string.
Python 3.2+ has a built-in int.to_bytes() method that could be used
instead, but the following works in earlier versions including 2.x.
"""
return decode('%%0%dx' % (length << 1) % n, 'hex')[-length:]
def float_to_bin(value): # For testing.
""" Convert float to 64-bit binary string. """
[d] = struct.unpack(">Q", struct.pack(">d", value))
return '{:064b}'.format(d)
if __name__ == '__main__':
for f in 0.0, 1.0, -14.0, 12.546, 3.141593:
print('Test value: %f' % f)
binary = float_to_bin(f)
print(' float_to_bin: %r' % binary)
floating_point = bin_to_float(binary) # Round trip.
print(' bin_to_float: %f\n' % floating_point)
Output:
Test value: 0.000000
float_to_bin: '0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'
bin_to_float: 0.000000
Test value: 1.000000
float_to_bin: '0011111111110000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'
bin_to_float: 1.000000
Test value: -14.000000
float_to_bin: '1100000000101100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'
bin_to_float: -14.000000
Test value: 12.546000
float_to_bin: '0100000000101001000101111000110101001111110111110011101101100100'
bin_to_float: 12.546000
Test value: 3.141593
float_to_bin: '0100000000001001001000011111101110000010110000101011110101111111'
bin_to_float: 3.141593
Convert From binary to Float in C
python - How to convert a binary (string) into a float value? - Stack Overflow
Binary to Float?
What's a good way to convert from binary to float?
How do I convert a number to floating-point?
To convert a decimal number to a floating-point representation, follow these steps:
- Convert the entire number to binary and then normalize it, i.e. write it in scientific notation using base 2.
- Truncate the fraction after the decimal point to the allowable fraction length.
- Extract the sign, exponent, and fraction segments.
Refer to the IEEE754 standard for more detailed instructions.
What is an IEEE754 floating-point number?
In computing, a floating-point number is a data format used to store fractional numbers in a digital machine. A floating-point number is represented by a series of bits (1s and 0s). Computers perform mathematical operations on these bits directly instead of how a human would do the math. When a human wants to read the floating-point number, a complex formula reconstructs the bits into the decimal system.
Why do we use floating-point numbers?
The IEEE754 floating-point format standard enables efficient storage and processing of numbers in computers.
-
From a hardware perspective, many simplifications of floating-point operations can be made to significantly speed up arithmetic, thanks to the IEEE754 standard's specifications.
-
For software, floats are very precise and typically lose a few millionths (if not less) per operation, which enables high-precision scientific and engineering applications.
Hello,
i'm reciving 4 byte on a serial channel, this 4 byte are the binary of a float number, 1-bit for the sign, 8-bit for exponent, 23*-bit for the mantissa, my board recive them as 4 uint8. Now i want to convert them to float, how i can do it?
i want to convert uint8 val[4] to float.
Thanks for your time, and your help.
In one of your comments you indicated that the binary number represents a float in 8 byte long IEEE 754 binary64 format. However that is inconsistent with the -0b1110 value you showed as an example, so I've ignored it and used my own which is in the proper format as example input data for testing the answer shown below.
Essentially what is done is first the binary string is converted into an integer value, then next into a string of raw bytes which is passed to struct.unpack() for final conversion to a floating point value. The bin_to_float() function shown below drives the process. Although not illustrated, binary input string arguments can be prefixed with '0b'.
from codecs import decode
import struct
def bin_to_float(b):
""" Convert binary string to a float. """
bf = int_to_bytes(int(b, 2), 8) # 8 bytes needed for IEEE 754 binary64.
return struct.unpack('>d', bf)[0]
def int_to_bytes(n, length): # Helper function
""" Int/long to byte string.
Python 3.2+ has a built-in int.to_bytes() method that could be used
instead, but the following works in earlier versions including 2.x.
"""
return decode('%%0%dx' % (length << 1) % n, 'hex')[-length:]
def float_to_bin(value): # For testing.
""" Convert float to 64-bit binary string. """
[d] = struct.unpack(">Q", struct.pack(">d", value))
return '{:064b}'.format(d)
if __name__ == '__main__':
for f in 0.0, 1.0, -14.0, 12.546, 3.141593:
print('Test value: %f' % f)
binary = float_to_bin(f)
print(' float_to_bin: %r' % binary)
floating_point = bin_to_float(binary) # Round trip.
print(' bin_to_float: %f\n' % floating_point)
Output:
Test value: 0.000000
float_to_bin: '0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'
bin_to_float: 0.000000
Test value: 1.000000
float_to_bin: '0011111111110000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'
bin_to_float: 1.000000
Test value: -14.000000
float_to_bin: '1100000000101100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'
bin_to_float: -14.000000
Test value: 12.546000
float_to_bin: '0100000000101001000101111000110101001111110111110011101101100100'
bin_to_float: 12.546000
Test value: 3.141593
float_to_bin: '0100000000001001001000011111101110000010110000101011110101111111'
bin_to_float: 3.141593
This works for me. Tested with Python3.4:
def float_to_bin(num):
return bin(struct.unpack('!I', struct.pack('!f', num))[0])[2:].zfill(32)
def bin_to_float(binary):
return struct.unpack('!f',struct.pack('!I', int(binary, 2)))[0]
float_to_bin(bin_to_float(float_to_bin(123.123))) == float_to_bin(123.123)
>>> True
I'm trying to read binary data (binary representations of 32 bit float numbers) and convert them to floating point numbers.
What's a good way of doing this? I was looking into a function that did this but the two I have found are giving me strange results--one creates a 36 bit integer from a floating point number (tried some examples) and another can create an estimated floating point number but it doesn't seem to be very close to the real floating point number.
Suppose we can convert a binary integer to a decimal one repeatedly finding the remainder from dividing by ten and looking it up in a table of digits, that way for 10101 we’d first divide it by ten and get a remainder of 1 which maps to 1, then we’d divide it by ten once more and get a remainder of of 10, which maps to 2. That way we’d get 21.
But how would I get 0.75 from 0.11?