Conversion to Binary Language (Not file or .bin)

[Zaid Pirwani]

Hi there, I just want to ask if there is anyway to convert a file (any file, any format) into binary language and I do mean the real binary language having only 1s and 0s. For the sake of convenience, can anyone please tell me ways to convert text files (I think those are the most simplest of all file formats) into binary language. Please guys, share what you know, I have no idea how to do this conversion, but I have some great ideas on how to work with that stuff, its all still just a fancy thought, but if it works, it will create something entirely NEW. Thanks to all in advance who will help me on this subject.

[Zaid Pirwani]

I just want to know the method of converting a text file, sample code would be highly appreciated, there is no specific programming language in my mind, any programming language will work.

[Sebastian Schneider]

I believe you may have fallen for a prank someone played on you. Or a misunderstanding. Or I've fallen for your joke. Everything in a digital system is stored as 1 and 0. However, noone writes it out. If you use a hex-editor to look at a file, you'll see, for example "A5", but stored as "10100101" on the disk. Really.

[Zaid Pirwani]

NO I have not fallen to any ones prank, nor I intend to pull a prank on you. I know that everything in this digital world of computers is in 1s and 0s, but is there any way to actually see all those 1s and 0s of a file, I mean since everything is interpreted by computers as 1 and 0 then why can't we see them, there can be a way of seeing all those digits, I want to know how information is really stored.

[Zaid Pirwani]

And I cannot use Hex editor to view the 1s and 0s, if ther is a way then please do tell me.

[Lost User]

You can see them, once you know how to. The hex-values are the actual values, representing the binary values. There are a lot of ways to write down the number twelve; * Twelve * 12 * C (=12, but written in hex) * 14 (that's twelve, but written in oct) * 1100 (=8 + 4, written in bin) * XII (ancient encoding) That's the same number, over and over again. Now, it's hard to read "1100", so we use the decimal "12" whenever we talk about twelve. A hex-representation shows "16" bits in a single character. Open your hex-editor, take two hex-characters. Convert them to "binary", by writing them out (meaning, a "C" becomes "00001100") and you'll have the actual 0's and 1's that are stored.

I are troll :)

[Luc Pattyn]

Hi, thie C# snippet will show bits and bytes:

FileStream fs=File.Open(filename, FileMode.Open);
for (long adr=0; ; adr++) {
	int byteValue=fs.ReadByte();
	if (byteValue<0) break;
	string s="\["+adr.ToString()+"\]=";
	for (int mask=0x80; mask!=0; mask/=2) s=s+((byteValue&mask)==0?"0":"1");
	log(s);
}
fs.Close();
log("Done");

when you provide a log(string) method to output a line of text. :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]

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[Zaid Pirwani]

thanks, let me work on this, I will write back when I succeed.

[J4amieC]

Pass me that left handed screwdriver, and go fetch me the long weight from the store cupboard and we'll go from there.