integer - Hex string to signed int in Python 3.2?

Question

How do I convert a hex string to a signed int in Python 3.2?

The best I can come up with is

h = '9DA92DAB'
b = bytes(h, 'utf-8')
ba = binascii.a2b_hex(b)
print(int.from_bytes(ba, byteorder='big', signed=True))

Is there a simpler way? Unsigned is so much easier: int(h, 16)

BTW, the origin of the question is itunes persistent id - music library xml version and iTunes hex version

Answer 1

In n-bit two's complement, bits have value:

bit 0 = 2⁰
bit 1 = 2¹
bit n-2 = 2^n-2
bit n-1 = -2^n-1

But bit n-1 has value 2^n-1 when unsigned, so the number is 2ⁿ too high. Subtract 2ⁿ if bit n-1 is set:

>>> def twos_complement(hexstr,bits):
...     value = int(hexstr,16)
...     if value & (1 << (bits-1)):
...         value -= 1 << bits
...     return value
...
>>> twos_complement('FFFE',16)
-2
>>> twos_complement('7FFF',16)
32767
>>> twos_complement('7F',8)
127
>>> twos_complement('FF',8)
-1