How to Read a binary File with Python

In order to read a binary file in Python, we can make use of the build-in open() function.

Make sure to pass in the correct combination of the characters to the open function to read in binary.

Character	Meaning
r	open for reading (default)
w	open for writing, truncating the file first
x	open for exclusive creation, failing if the file already exists
a	open for writing, appending to the end of the file if it exists
b	binary mode
t	text mode (default)
+	open for updating (reading and writing)

So we need a combination of two characters 1) r to open the file in read mode and 2) b to enable binary mode.

Example:

with open('data_20230703.bin', 'rb') as binary_file:
    data = binary_file.read()