How to read bits from a file?

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Python can only read a byte at a time. You’d need to read in a full byte, then just extract the value you want from that byte, e.g.

b = x.read(1)
firstfivebits = b >> 3

Or if you wanted the 5 least significant bits, rather than the 5 most significant bits:

b = x.read(1)
lastfivebits = b & 0b11111

Some other useful bit manipulation info can be found here: http://wiki.python.org/moin/BitManipulation

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