How to create a fixed size (unsigned) integer in python?

Question

I want to create a fixed size integer in python, for example 4 bytes. Coming from a C background, I expected that all the primitive types will occupy a constant space in mem

Answer 1

the way I do this (and its usually to ensure a fixed width integer before sending to some hardware) is via ctypes

from ctypes import c_ushort 

def hex16(self, data):
    '''16bit int->hex converter'''
    return  '0x%004x' % (c_ushort(data).value)
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------      
def int16(self, data):
    '''16bit hex->int converter'''
    return c_ushort(int(data,16)).value

otherwise struct can do it

from struct import pack, unpack
pack_type = {'signed':'>h','unsigned':'>H',}
pack(self.pack_type[sign_type], data)