How to compress or compact a string in Python

Question

I'm making a python "script" that sends a string to a webservice (in C#). I NEED to compress or compact this string, because the bandwidth and MBs data is LIMITED (yeah, in capitals because it's very limited).

I was thinking of converting it into a file and then compressing the file. But I'm looking for a method to directly compress the string.

How can I compress or compact the string?

Answer 1

How about zlib?

import zlib

a = "this string needs compressing"
a = zlib.compress(a.encode())
print(zlib.decompress(a).decode())  # outputs original contents of a

You can also use sys.getsizeof(obj) to see how much data an object takes up before and after compression.

Answer 2

import sys
import zlib


text=b"""This function is the primary interface to this module along with 
decompress() function. This function returns byte object by compressing the data 
given to it as parameter. The function has another parameter called level which 
controls the extent of compression. It an integer between 0 to 9. Lowest value 0 
stands for no compression and 9 stands for best compression. Higher the level of 
compression, greater the length of compressed byte object."""

# Checking size of text
text_size=sys.getsizeof(text)
print("\nsize of original text",text_size)

# Compressing text
compressed = zlib.compress(text)

# Checking size of text after compression
csize=sys.getsizeof(compressed)
print("\nsize of compressed text",csize)

# Decompressing text
decompressed=zlib.decompress(compressed)

#Checking size of text after decompression
dsize=sys.getsizeof(decompressed)
print("\nsize of decompressed text",dsize)

print("\nDifference of size= ", text_size-csize)