decode binary string using a defined decode function and prints assci of decoded binary

decoder.py

#! /usr/bin/python


def decode(input):
    if input == "0001":
        return "00"
    if input == "0010":
        return "01"
    if input == "0100":
        return "10"
    if input == "1000":
        return "11"
    return "Err"

def printArray(arr):
    s = ""
    for item in arr:
        s += chr(int(item,2))
    print s

input = "00100010 \
00011000 00100010 00101000 00100001 01000010 00100010 00100001 00100001 00011000 \
00100001 01000001"


print 'input is ' + input

decodeds = []

for item in input.split(" "):
    decoded = decode(item[0:4]) + decode(item[4:])
    decodeds += [decoded]

joint = []

for i in range(0, len(decodeds), 2):
    a = decodeds[i] + decodeds[i+1]
    joint += [a]

print 'decoded input is '
print joint

print 'using ascci table : '
printArray(joint)