If I have an int that fits into 32 bits, what is the fastest way to split it up into four 8-bit values in python? My simple timing test suggests that bit masking and shifting is moderately faster than divmod(), but I'm pretty sure I haven't thought of everything.
>>> timeit.timeit("x=15774114513484005952; y1, x =divmod(x, 256);y2,x = divmod(x, 256); y3, y4 = divmod(x, 256)")
0.5113952939864248
>>> timeit.timeit("x=15774114513484005952; y1=x&255; x >>= 8;y2=x&255; x>>=8; y3=x&255; y4= x>>8")
0.41230630996869877
Before you ask: this operation will be used a lot. I'm using python 3.4.