Better way to convert file sizes in Python

Here is what I use:

import math

def convert_size(size_bytes):
   if size_bytes == 0:
       return "0B"
   size_name = ("B", "KB", "MB", "GB", "TB", "PB", "EB", "ZB", "YB")
   i = int(math.floor(math.log(size_bytes, 1024)))
   p = math.pow(1024, i)
   s = round(size_bytes / p, 2)
   return "%s %s" % (s, size_name[i])

NB : size should be sent in Bytes.

Instead of a size divisor of 1024 * 1024 you could use the << bitwise shifting operator, i.e. 1<<20 to get megabytes, 1<<30 to get gigabytes, etc.

In the simplest scenario you can have e.g. a constant MBFACTOR = float(1<<20) which can then be used with bytes, i.e.: megas = size_in_bytes/MBFACTOR.

Megabytes are usually all that you need, or otherwise something like this can be used:

# bytes pretty-printing
UNITS_MAPPING = [
    (1<<50, ' PB'),
    (1<<40, ' TB'),
    (1<<30, ' GB'),
    (1<<20, ' MB'),
    (1<<10, ' KB'),
    (1, (' byte', ' bytes')),
]


def pretty_size(bytes, units=UNITS_MAPPING):
    """Get human-readable file sizes.
    simplified version of https://pypi.python.org/pypi/hurry.filesize/
    """
    for factor, suffix in units:
        if bytes >= factor:
            break
    amount = int(bytes / factor)

    if isinstance(suffix, tuple):
        singular, multiple = suffix
        if amount == 1:
            suffix = singular
        else:
            suffix = multiple
    return str(amount) + suffix

print(pretty_size(1))
print(pretty_size(42))
print(pretty_size(4096))
print(pretty_size(238048577))
print(pretty_size(334073741824))
print(pretty_size(96995116277763))
print(pretty_size(3125899904842624))

## [Out] ###########################
1 byte
42 bytes
4 KB
227 MB
311 GB
88 TB
2 PB

There is hurry.filesize that will take the size in bytes and make a nice string out if it.

>>> from hurry.filesize import size
>>> size(11000)
'10K'
>>> size(198283722)
'189M'

Or if you want 1K == 1000 (which is what most users assume):

>>> from hurry.filesize import size, si
>>> size(11000, system=si)
'11K'
>>> size(198283722, system=si)
'198M'

It has IEC support as well (but that wasn't documented):

>>> from hurry.filesize import size, iec
>>> size(11000, system=iec)
'10Ki'
>>> size(198283722, system=iec)
'189Mi'

Because it's written by the Awesome Martijn Faassen, the code is small, clear and extensible. Writing your own systems is dead easy.

Here is one:

mysystem = [
    (1024 ** 5, ' Megamanys'),
    (1024 ** 4, ' Lotses'),
    (1024 ** 3, ' Tons'), 
    (1024 ** 2, ' Heaps'), 
    (1024 ** 1, ' Bunches'),
    (1024 ** 0, ' Thingies'),
    ]

Used like so:

>>> from hurry.filesize import size
>>> size(11000, system=mysystem)
'10 Bunches'
>>> size(198283722, system=mysystem)
'189 Heaps'