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I am working my way through bytes in python and I have to say I have come across numerous difficulties. One of them is int.tobytes() function. Converting integers up to 32 works fine, but after that the output has single characters that I don't understand. For example:

x=90
y=33
z=76

print(x.to_bytes(4, 'big'))
print(y.to_bytes(4, 'big'))
print(z.to_bytes(4, 'big'))

Output:
b'\x00\x00\x00Z'
b'\x00\x00\x00!'
b'\x00\x00\x00L'

I don't understand the single digit byte at the start. For example, I would expect 90 to be: '\x00\x00\x00\x5A'(Converting it to hexadecimal), but instead I get results like this. I can't seem to find solutions online. What do these single characters represent? Thanks

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  • 90 (or 5A) -> Z, 33 -> !, 76 -> L - that's all just ASCII. That's what it shows for printable characters Commented Jun 2, 2022 at 10:12
  • The output you posted is correct. When you say you want: '\x00\x00\x00\x5A', that is exactly what python prints and is shown in your output. Commented Jun 2, 2022 at 10:12
  • Do the answers to this question help at all? You could try: print(x.to_bytes(4, 'big').hex()) etc Commented Jun 2, 2022 at 10:14
  • @jonrsharpe Thanks for the answer. Understood, but why is ASCII used instead of utf-8? Why I use sys.getdefaultencoding() it shows 'utf-8. Commented Jun 2, 2022 at 11:41
  • @quamrana Thanks for the answer. Using hex() I can easily see the output it hexadecimal and it matches the one I expected Commented Jun 2, 2022 at 11:41
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