Convert a 64 bit integer into 8 separate 1 byte integers in python

Question

In python, I have been given a 64 bit integer. This Integer was created by taking several different 8 bit integers and mashing them together into one giant 64 bit integer.

Answer 1

Here's a version using struct:

import struct
n = 2592701575664680400
bytes = struct.unpack('8B', struct.pack('Q', n))

The bytes are returned in the opposite order that you showed in your question.

Here are the performance stats:

python -m timeit -s "import struct" "struct.unpack('8B', struct.pack('Q', 2592701575664680400))"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.33 usec per loop

On my computer, this is three times faster than the byte-shifting solution.