I wrote this a while back and it's worked pretty well (negatives and all included)
def code(number,base):
try:
int(number),int(base)
except ValueError:
raise ValueError('code(number,base): number and base must be in base10')
else:
number,base = int(number),int(base)
if base < 2:
base = 2
if base > 62:
base = 62
numbers = [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,"a","b","c","d","e","f","g","h","i","j",
"k","l","m","n","o","p","q","r","s","t","u","v","w","x","y",
"z","A","B","C","D","E","F","G","H","I","J","K","L","M","N",
"O","P","Q","R","S","T","U","V","W","X","Y","Z"]
final = ""
loc = 0
if number < 0:
final = "-"
number = abs(number)
while base**loc <= number:
loc = loc + 1
for x in range(loc-1,-1,-1):
for y in range(base-1,-1,-1):
if y*(base**x) <= number:
final = "{}{}".format(final,numbers[y])
number = number - y*(base**x)
break
return final
def decode(number,base):
try:
int(base)
except ValueError:
raise ValueError('decode(value,base): base must be in base10')
else:
base = int(base)
number = str(number)
if base < 2:
base = 2
if base > 62:
base = 62
numbers = ["0","1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9","a","b","c","d","e","f",
"g","h","i","j","k","l","m","n","o","p","q","r","s","t","u","v",
"w","x","y","z","A","B","C","D","E","F","G","H","I","J","K","L",
"M","N","O","P","Q","R","S","T","U","V","W","X","Y","Z"]
final = 0
if number.startswith("-"):
neg = True
number = list(number)
del(number[0])
temp = number
number = ""
for x in temp:
number = "{}{}".format(number,x)
else:
neg = False
loc = len(number)-1
number = str(number)
for x in number:
if numbers.index(x) > base:
raise ValueError('{} is out of base{} range'.format(x,str(base)))
final = final+(numbers.index(x)*(base**loc))
loc = loc - 1
if neg:
return -final
else:
return final
sorry about the length of it all