Question

In this post: Print a string as hex bytes? I learned how to print as string into an “array” of hex bytes now I need something the other way around:

So for example the input would be: 73.69.67.6e.61.74.75.72.65 and the output would be a string.

Answer 1

Without binascii:

>>> a="73.69.67.6e.61.74.75.72.65"  
>>> "".join(chr(int(e, 16)) for e in a.split('.'))  
'signature'  
>>>

or better:

>>> a="73.69.67.6e.61.74.75.72.65"  
>>> "".join(e.decode('hex') for e in a.split('.'))

PS: works with unicode:

>>> a='.'.join(x.encode('hex') for x in 'Hellö Wörld!')
>>> a
'48.65.6c.6c.94.20.57.94.72.6c.64.21'
>>> print "".join(e.decode('hex') for e in a.split('.'))
Hellö Wörld!
>>>

EDIT:

No need for a generator expression here (thx to thg435):

a.replace('.', '').decode('hex')