Convert int to ASCII and back in Python

Question

I\'m working on making a URL shortener for my site, and my current plan (I\'m open to suggestions) is to use a node ID to generate the shortened URL. So, in theory, node 26

Answer 1

If multiple characters are bound inside a single integer/long, as was my issue:

s = '0123456789'
nchars = len(s)
# string to int or long. Type depends on nchars
x = sum(ord(s[byte])<<8*(nchars-byte-1) for byte in range(nchars))
# int or long to string
''.join(chr((x>>8*(nchars-byte-1))&0xFF) for byte in range(nchars))

Yields '0123456789' and x = 227581098929683594426425L