I need to read a file bit by bit in python

Question

I would like an output like 01100011010... or [False,False,True,True,False,...] from a file to then create an encrypted file. I've already tried byte = file.read(1) but i don't know how to then convert it to bits.

Answer 1

You can read a file in binary mode this way:

with open(r'path\to\file.ext', 'rb') as binary_file:
    bits = binary_file.read()

The 'rb' option stands for Read Binary.

---

For the output you asked for you can do something like this:

[print(bit, end='') for bit in bits]

that is the list comprehension equivalent to:

for bit in bits:
    print(bit, end='')

---

Since 'rb' gives you hex numbers instead of bin, you can use the built-in function bin to solve the problem:

with open(r'D:\\help\help.txt', 'rb') as file:
    for char in file.read():
        print(bin(char), end='')