Type code C Type Minimum size in bytes
'b' signed integer 1
'B' unsigned integer 1
'u' Unicode character 2
'h' signed integer 2
'H' unsigned integer 2
'i' signed integer 2
'I' unsigned integer 2
'l' signed integer 4
'L' unsigned integer 4
'q' signed integer 8
'Q' unsigned integer 8
'f' floating point 4
'd' floating point 8
>>> from array import array
>>> from random import random
>>> floats = array('d', (random() for i in range(10**7)))
>>> floats[-1]
0.021901117799701275
>>> fp = open('floats.bin', 'wb')
>>> floats.tofile(fp)
>>> fp.close()
>>> floats_2 = array('d')
>>> fp = open('floats.bin', 'rb')
>>> floats_2.fromfile(fp, 10**7)
>>> fp.close()
>>> floats_2[-1]
0.021901117799701275
>>> floats_2 == floats
True
>>> import array
>>> a = array.array(a.typecode, sorted(a))