Question

Is there a byte buffer object in Python to which I can append values of specific types? (preferably with specifiable endianess)

For example:

buf.add_int(4)    # should add a 4 byte integer
buf.add_short(10) # should add a 2 byte short
buf.add_byte(24)  # should add a byte

I know that I could just use struct.pack but this approach just seems easier. Ideally it should be like the DataOutputStream and DataInputStream objects in Java which do this exact task.

Answer 1

You can always use bitstring. It is capable of doing all the things you ask and more.

>>> import bitstring
>>> stream=bitstring.BitStream()
>>> stream.append("int:32=4")
>>> stream.append("int:16=10")
>>> stream.append("int:8=24")
>>> stream
BitStream('0x00000004000a18')
>>> stream.bytes
'\x00\x00\x00\x04\x00\n\x18'

Here is a link to the documentation.