Convert int to ASCII and back in Python

Question

ASCII to int:

ord('a')

gives 97

And back to a string:

• in Python2: str(unichr(97))
• in Python3: chr(97)

gives 'a'

>>> ord("a")
97
>>> chr(97)
'a'

If multiple characters are bound inside a single integer/long, as was my issue:

s = '0123456789'
nchars = len(s)
# string to int or long. Type depends on nchars
x = sum(ord(s[byte])<<8*(nchars-byte-1) for byte in range(nchars))
# int or long to string
''.join(chr((x>>8*(nchars-byte-1))&0xFF) for byte in range(nchars))

Yields '0123456789' and x = 227581098929683594426425L

What about BASE58 encoding the URL? Like for example flickr does.

# note the missing lowercase L and the zero etc.
BASE58 = '123456789abcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ' 
url = ''
while node_id >= 58:
    div, mod = divmod(node_id, 58)
    url = BASE58[mod] + url
    node_id = int(div)

return 'http://short.com/%s' % BASE58[node_id] + url

Turning that back into a number isn't a big deal either.