How to convert an integer to binary in Python and pad with leading zeros?

General Discussions
1

I have used the following code to convert an integer to binary:

>>> bin(6)
'0b110'

And when I want to remove the '0b' prefix, I use:

>>> bin(6)[2:]
'110'

What can I do if I want to show the binary representation of 6 as 00000110 instead of just 110?

How can I convert number to binary in Python and pad the result with leading zeros to a fixed width, like 00000110 for the number 6?

2

The format() function allows you to specify the width and pad the binary number with leading zeros.

number = 6
binary_str = format(number, '08b')
print(binary_str)  # Output: '00000110'
3

F-strings provide a concise way to format strings, and you can specify the width and padding directly.

number = 6
binary_str = f"{number:08b}"
print(binary_str)  # Output: '00000110'
4

If you already have the binary string (without the 0b prefix), you can use zfill() to pad it with leading zeros.

number = 6
binary_str = bin(number)[2:].zfill(8)
print(binary_str)  # Output: '00000110'