How to convert signed to unsigned integer in python

Question

Let\'s say I have this number i = -6884376. How do I refer to it as to an unsigned variable? Something like (unsigned long)i in C.

Answer 1

python does not have any builtin to convert int to unsigned int.Instead it is having long for longer range.

>>> val = 9223372036854775807 (maximum value of int 64)
>>> type(val)

>>> val += 1
>>> type(val)

By increasing the value of val by 1, I exceed the limit of a signed 64 bit integer and the value is converted to a long. If Python had used or converted to an unsigned integer, val would still have been an int. Or, not long.

Signed integers are represented by a bit, usually the most significant bit, being set to 0 for positive numbers or 1 for negative numbers. What val & 0xff does is actually val & 0x000000ff (on a 32 bit machine). In other words, the signed bit is set to 0 and an unsigned value is emulated.

An example:

>>> val = -1
>>> val & 0xff
255