Metadata-Version: 1.0
Name: bitarray
Version: 0.2.0
Summary: bitarray: module for efficiently storing bits in a list-like object
Home-page: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/bitarray/
Author: Ilan Schnell
Author-email: ilanschnell@gmail.com
License: PSF
Description: ===============
        Bitarray module
        ===============
        
        This module provides an object type which can efficiently
        represent a bitarray.  Bitarrays are sequence types and behave very much
        like usual lists.  Each bit is represented as an actual bit in memory.
        For example, this allows the storage of 8Gbits in 1GB of memory.
        Most of the functionallity is implemented in C, for speed.
        
        Requires Python 2.5 or greater, see PEP 353.
        
        
        Installation
        ------------
        
        bitarray can be installed from source::
        
        $ tar xzf bitarray-0.2.0.tar.gz
        $ cd bitarray-0.2.0
        $ python setup.py install
        
        On Unix systems, the latter command may be executed with root privileges.
        
        If you have setuptools_ installed on your system, you can
        easy_install bitarray.
        
        Once you have installed the package, you may want to test it::
        
        $ python -c 'from bitarray import test; test()'
        bitarray is insalled in: /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bitarray
        bitarray version: 0.2.0
        2.5.2 (r252:60911, Jul 17 2008, 10:38:24)
        [GCC 4.2.1 (SUSE Linux)]
        ....................................
        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Ran 36 tests in 0.294s
        
        OK
        
        In fact, one can always import the function test which in addition to
        printing the test, also returns an instance of `unittest._TextTestResult`;
        for example `test().wasSuccessful()` will return True when the test went OK.
        
        
        .. _setuptools : http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools
        
        Using the module
        ----------------
        
        Here are a few usage example, pointing out some differences to lists.
        
        >>> from bitarray import bitarray
        >>> a = bitarray()            # create empty bitarray
        >>> a.append(True)
        >>> a.extend([False, True])
        >>> a
        bitarray('101')
        >>> a[-1]
        True
        >>> del a[1]
        >>> len(a)
        2
        
        Creating objects:
        
        >>> a = bitarray(1024)        # bitarray of length 1024 (uninitialized)
        >>> bitarray('1001011')       # from string
        bitarray('1001011')
        >>> lst = [True, False, False, True, False, True, True]
        >>> bitarray(lst)             # from list, tuple, sequence, iterable
        bitarray('1001011')
        
        Bits can be assigned from any Python object.
        Whenever bits are assigned, the built-in `bool()` function is used to
        determine the value of the bit.  (Actually the C equivalent of `bool()`
        is used.)
        
        >>> a = bitarray([42, '', True, {}, 'foo', None])
        >>> a
        bitarray('101010')
        >>> a.append(a)      # note that bool(a) is True
        >>> a
        bitarray('1010101')
        >>> a.count(42)      # counts occurrences of True
        4L
        >>> a.remove('')     # removes first occurence of False
        >>> a
        bitarray('110101')
        
        Like lists, bitarray objects support slice assignment and deletion:
        
        >>> a = bitarray(50)
        >>> a.setall(False)
        >>> a[11:37:3] = 9*bitarray([True])
        >>> a
        bitarray('00000000000100100100100100100100100100000000000000')
        >>> del a[12::3]
        >>> a
        bitarray('0000000000010101010101010101000000000')
        >>> a[-6:] = bitarray('10011')
        >>> a
        bitarray('000000000001010101010101010100010011')
        >>> a += bitarray('000111')
        >>> a
        bitarray('000000000001010101010101010100010011000111')
        
        
        Bit endianness
        --------------
        
        Since a bitarray allows addressing of individual bits, where the machine
        represents 8 bits in one byte, there two obvious choices for this mapping;
        little- and big-endian.
        When creating a new bitarray object, the endianness can always be
        specified explicitly:
        
        >>> a = bitarray(endian='little')
        >>> a.fromstring('A')
        >>> a
        bitarray('10000010')
        >>> b = bitarray('11000010', endian='little')
        >>> b.tostring()
        'C'
        
        Here the low-bit comes first because little-endian means that increasing
        numeric significance corresponds to an increasing address (or index).
        So a[0] is the lowest and least significant bit, and a[7] is the highest
        and most significant bit.
        
        >>> a = bitarray(endian='big')
        >>> a.fromstring('A')
        >>> a
        bitarray('01000001')
        >>> a[6] = 1
        >>> a.tostring()
        'C'
        
        Here the high-bit comes first because big-endian
        means "most-significant first".
        So a[0] is now the lowest and most significant bit, and a[7] is the highest
        and least significant bit.
        
        The bit endianness is a property attachet to each bitarray object.
        When comparing bitarray objects, the endianness (and hence the machine
        representation) is irrelevant; what matters is the mapping from indicies
        to bits:
        
        >>> bitarray('11001', endian='big') == bitarray('11001', endian='little')
        True
        
        When converting to and from machine representation, using
        the `tostring`, `fromstring`, `tofile` and `fromfile` methods,
        the endianness matters:
        
        >>> a = bitarray(endian='little')
        >>> a.fromstring('\x01')
        >>> a
        bitarray('10000000')
        >>> b = bitarray(endian='big')
        >>> b.fromstring('\x80')
        >>> a == b
        True
        >>> a.tostring() == b.tostring()
        False
        
        The endianness can not be changed once an object is created.
        However, since creating a bitarray from another bitarray just copies the
        memory representing the data, you can create a new bitarray with different
        endianness:
        
        >>> a = bitarray('11100000', endian='little')
        >>> b = bitarray(a, endian='big')
        >>> b
        bitarray('00000111')
        >>> a == b
        False
        >>> a.tostring() == b.tostring()
        True
        
        The default bit endianness is currently big-endian, however this may change
        in the future, and when dealing with the machine represention of bitarray
        objects, it is recommanded to always explicitly specifiy the endianness.
        
        Unless, excplicity converting to machine representation, using
        the `tostring`, `fromstring`, `tofile` and `fromfile` methods,
        the bit endianness will have no effect on any computation, and you
        don't have to worry about setting the endianness, and other (possibly
        confusing) details of this section.
        
        
        Reference
        ---------
        
        A bitarray object has the following methods:
        
        append(x)
        Append new value bool(x) to the end of the bitarray.
        
        
        buffer_info()
        Return a tuple (address, length, endianness) giving the current memory
        address, and the length in bytes used to hold the bitarray's contents, and
        the bit endianness as a string (either 'little' or 'big').
        The length in bytes multiplied by 8 is slightly larger than the number of
        bits the bitarray holds.
        
        
        bytereverse()
        For all bytes representing the bitarray, reverse the bit order.
        
        
        count(x)
        Return number of occurences of x in the bitarray.
        
        
        endian()
        return the bit endianness as a string (either 'little' or 'big').
        
        
        extend(bitarray or iterable)
        Append bits to the end of the bitarray.
        When you want to extend from a list, it's faster to use fromlist.
        
        
        fill()
        When the length of the bitarray is not a mutiple of 8, increase the length
        slightly such that the new length is a mutiple of 8, and set the few new
        bits to zero.
        
        
        from01(string)
        Appends items from the string (containing '0's and '1's) to the bitarray.
        
        
        fromfile(f [, n])
        Read n bytes from the file object f and append them to the bitarray
        interpreted as machine values.  When n is omitted, as many bytes are
        read until EOF is reached.
        
        
        fromlist(list)
        Append bits to bitarray from list.
        
        
        fromstring(string)
        Append from a string, interpreting the string as machine values.
        
        
        index(x)
        Return index of first occurence of x in the bitarray.  It is an error when x
        does not occur in the bitarray
        
        
        insert(i, x)
        Insert a new item x into the bitarray before position i.
        
        
        invert(x)
        Invert all bits in the bitarray, i.e. convert each 1-bit into a 0-bit
        and vice versa.
        
        
        length()
        Return the length (number of bits) of the bitarray.
        
        
        pop([i])
        Return the i-th element and delete it from the bitarray. i defaults to -1.
        
        
        remove(x)
        Remove the first occurence of x in the bitarray.
        
        
        reverse()
        reverse the order of bits in the bitarray.
        
        
        setall(x)
        Set all bits in the bitarray to x.
        
        
        to01(string)
        Return a string containing '0's and '1's, representing the bits in the
        bitarray object.
        
        
        tofile(f)
        Write all bits (as machine values) to the file object f.
        When the length of the bitarray is not a mutiple of 8,
        the few remaining bits are filled with zeros.
        
        
        tolist()
        Return an ordinary list with the items in the bitarray.
        
        
        tostring()
        Return the string representing (machine values) of the bitarray.
        When the length of the bitarray is not a mutiple of 8, the few remaining
        bits are filled with zeros.
        
        
        
Platform: UNKNOWN
Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: Python Software Foundation License
Classifier: Development Status :: 4 - Beta
Classifier: Intended Audience :: Developers
Classifier: Operating System :: OS Independent
Classifier: Programming Language :: C
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python
Classifier: Topic :: Utilities
