C# binary to string

Question

I am reading from serial port using string messaga = _serialPort.ReadLine(); When i Console.WriteLine(messaga); random characters appear on the screen which is logical because the binary data is non ASCII. I suppose the method I am using handles data as ascii. What i would like to do is create a string var and asign to it the binary raw data coming from the port so when I console.write this var I want to see a string with binary data like 1101101110001011010 and NOT characters. How can i manage that?

Did you really expect it to convert all the bits to a string of 10100010 etc? — BugFinder, Jun 08 '11 at 21:58
Does `_serialPort` have a method for reading a `byte[]` vs a `String`? It seems like you would be better off using that method instead if you want to print the bits. — dana, Jun 08 '11 at 22:09
We are not here for reputation,but we like to know is our solution correct or not!,and what is best solution to amend ourself — DeveloperX, Jun 08 '11 at 22:14
@Mike Miller - It's not the rep count itself, but there's a level of disrespect when someone helps you and there's no 'thank you' comment or acknowledgement (by upvote/marking as answer). From a practical POV, it makes it easier to scroll through posts and find out whether it contains an answer or not. — keyboardP, Jun 08 '11 at 22:31
@keyboardP fair point and taken onboard. I took a bit of umbrage in the tone of the comments i.e. get your affairs in order and then we bid you worthy of help. — Mike Miller, Jun 08 '11 at 22:34
@Mike Miller - Nothing like that :)- It's understandable when people are new here since it's quite different from 'normal' forums in that respect. — keyboardP, Jun 08 '11 at 22:44

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

5

Stolen from How do you convert a string to ascii to binary in C#?

foreach (string letter in str.Select(c => Convert.ToString(c, 2)))
{
  Console.WriteLine(letter);
}

edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

Community

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answered Jun 08 '11 at 21:58

Mike Miller

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-1 for not getting it right. The results from `Convert.ToString(c,2)` aren't padded with leading zeros to the correct width for the type (e.g. conversion of `(byte)0x01` yields `"1"` rather than `"00000001"`). – Nicholas Carey Jun 08 '11 at 22:52

Nicholas Carey · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-08T23:20:38.893

You mean like this?

class Utility
{
  static readonly string[] BitPatterns ;
  static Utility()
  {
    BitPatterns = new string[256] ;
    for ( int i = 0 ; i < 256 ; ++i )
    {
      char[] chars = new char[8] ;
      for ( byte j = 0 , mask = 0x80 ; mask != 0x00 ; ++j , mask >>= 1 )
      {
        chars[j] = ( 0 == (i&mask) ? '0' : '1' ) ;
      }
      BitPatterns[i] = new string( chars ) ;
    }
    return ;
  }

  const int BITS_PER_BYTE = 8 ;
  public static string ToBinaryRepresentation( byte[] bytes )
  {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder( bytes.Length * BITS_PER_BYTE ) ;

    foreach ( byte b in bytes )
    {
      sb.Append( BitPatterns[b] ) ;
    }

    string instance = sb.ToString() ;
    return instance ;
  }

}
class Program
{
  static void Main()
  {
    byte[] foo = { 0x00 , 0x01 , 0x02 , 0x03 , } ;
    string s   = Utility.ToBinaryRepresentation( foo ) ;
    return ;
  }
}

Benchmarked this just now. The above code is approximately 12x faster than using Convert.ToString() and approximately 17x faster if the correction is added to pad with leading '0's.

C# binary to string

2 Answers2