Transmission bytearray from Python to C and return it

Question

I need fast processing of XOR bytearray, In a variant on Python

for i in range(len(str1)): str1[i]=str1[i] ^ 55

works very slow
I wrote this module in C. I know C language very badly, before I on it wrote nothing.
In a variant

PyArg_ParseTuple (args, "s", &str))

everything works as expected, but I need to use instead of s s* because elements can contain embeded null, but if I change s to s* when calling python crash

PyArg_ParseTuple (args, "s*", &str)) // crash

Maybe some beginner like me want to use my example as a start to write something of his own, so bring all the information to be used in this example on Windows.
Parsing arguments and building values on page http://docs.python.org/dev/c-api/arg.html

test_xor.c

#include <Python.h>

static PyObject* fast_xor(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
{
    const char* str ;
    int i;

    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s", &str))
        return NULL;

    for(i=0;i<sizeof(str);i++) {str[i]^=55;};
    return Py_BuildValue("s", str);

}

static PyMethodDef fastxorMethods[] =
{
     {"fast_xor", fast_xor, METH_VARARGS, "fast_xor desc"},
     {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}
};

PyMODINIT_FUNC

initfastxor(void)
{
     (void) Py_InitModule("fastxor", fastxorMethods);
}

test_xor.py

import fastxor
a=fastxor.fast_xor("World") # it works with s instead s*
print a
a=fastxor.fast_xor("Wo\0rld") # It does not work with s instead s*

compile.bat

rem use http://bellard.org/tcc/
tiny_impdef.exe C:\Python26\python26.dll
tcc -shared test_xor.c python26.def -IC:\Python26\include -LC:\Python26\libs -ofastxor.pyd
test_xor.py 

Answer 1

You don't need build an extension module to do this quickly, you can use NumPy. But for your question, you need some c code like this:

#include <Python.h>
#include <stdlib.h> 

static PyObject * fast_xor(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
{
    const char* str;
    char * buf;
    Py_ssize_t count;
    PyObject * result;
    int i;

    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s#", &str, &count))
    {
        return NULL;
    }

    buf = (char *)malloc(count);

    for(i=0;i<count;i++)
    {
        buf[i]=str[i] ^ 55;
    }

    result = Py_BuildValue("s#", buf, count);
    free(buf);
    return result;
}

You can't change the content of string object, because string in Python is immutable. You can use "s#" to get the char * pointer and the buffer length.

If you can use NumPy:

In [1]: import fastxor

In [2]: a = "abcdsafasf12q423\0sdfasdf"

In [3]: fastxor.fast_xor(a)
Out[3]: 'VUTSDVQVDQ\x06\x05F\x03\x05\x047DSQVDSQ'


In [5]: import numpy as np

In [6]: (np.frombuffer(a, np.int8)^55).tostring()
Out[6]: 'VUTSDVQVDQ\x06\x05F\x03\x05\x047DSQVDSQ'

In [7]: a = a*10000

In [8]: %timeit fastxor.fast_xor(a)
1000 loops, best of 3: 877 us per loop

In [15]: %timeit (np.frombuffer(a, np.int8)^55).tostring()
1000 loops, best of 3: 1.15 ms per loop

Answer 2

An alternative approach is to use PyObject_GetBuffer. The module below defines fast_xor for any object that supports the buffer protocol, and fast_xor_inplace for objects that have writable buffers, such as bytearray. This version returns None. I also added a 2nd unsigned charargument with a default value of 55.

Example:

>>> s = 'abc'
>>> b = bytearray(s)
>>> fast_xor(s), fast_xor(s, 0x20)
('VUT', 'ABC')
>>> fast_xor_inplace(b, 0x20)
>>> b
bytearray(b'ABC')

>>> fast_xor_inplace(s)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
BufferError: Object is not writable.

>>> fast_xor(b, 256)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
OverflowError: unsigned byte integer is greater than maximum

Source:

#include <Python.h>

static PyObject *fast_xor_inplace(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
{
    PyObject *arg1;
    unsigned char arg2 = 55;
    Py_buffer buffer;
    char *buf;
    int i;

    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "O|b:fast_xor_inplace", &arg1, &arg2))
        return NULL;

    if (PyObject_GetBuffer(arg1, &buffer, PyBUF_WRITABLE) < 0)
        return NULL;

    buf = buffer.buf;
    for(i=0; i < buffer.len; i++)
        buf[i] ^= arg2;

    PyBuffer_Release(&buffer);
    Py_INCREF(Py_None);
    return Py_None;
}

static PyObject *fast_xor(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
{
    PyObject *arg1;
    unsigned char arg2 = 55;
    PyObject *result;
    Py_buffer buffer;
    char *buf, *str;
    int i;

    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "O|b:fast_xor", &arg1, &arg2))
        return NULL;

    if (PyObject_GetBuffer(arg1, &buffer, PyBUF_SIMPLE) < 0)
        return NULL;

    result = PyString_FromStringAndSize(NULL, buffer.len);
    if (result == NULL)
        return NULL;

    buf = buffer.buf;
    str = PyString_AS_STRING(result);
    for(i=0; i < buffer.len; i++)
        str[i] = buf[i] ^ arg2;

    PyBuffer_Release(&buffer);
    return result;
}

static PyMethodDef fastxorMethods[] =
{
     {"fast_xor", fast_xor, METH_VARARGS, "fast xor"},
     {"fast_xor_inplace", fast_xor_inplace, METH_VARARGS, "fast inplace xor"},
     {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}
};

PyMODINIT_FUNC
initfastxor(void)
{
    Py_InitModule3("fastxor", fastxorMethods, "fast xor functions");
}