how to read from a binary file bit by bit

Question

DEAR ALL,

I AM A FRESHER IN C SHARP,AND I WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST SOME HELP FROM YOU PEOPLE,I HAVE A BINARY FILE AND I SHOULD READ IT BIT BY BIT ...COULD ANY OF YOU CAN HELP ME TO SORT THIS OUT??

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!

THANKS AND REGARDS,
TOM

tom thomas · Answer

Dear sir, the following is the code(please see the code below:) which i uses to open the binary file ,but now the problem is that 2 bytes are read in simultaneously and is being converted into an integer,but i need to read the data from the file in bits and finally convert 8 bits into binary numbers and then to decimal numbers? could you be able to give me some advice ? is it ok if i read all the bytes into a an array and then try to convert it into a bit array? with regards, tom. using System; using System.IO; using System.Collections; class Program { static void Main() { R(); } static void R() { // 1. using (BinaryReader b = new BinaryReader(File.Open("file.bin", FileMode.Open))) { // 2. // Position and length variables. int pos = 0; // 2A. // Use BaseStream. int length = (int)b.BaseStream.Length; while (pos { // 3. // Read integer. int v = b.ReadInt32(); Console.WriteLine(v); // 4. // Advance our position variable. pos += sizeof(int); // 5. // Seek to our required position.(int pos1 had to be found out ) //int pos1 = 0; //b.BaseStream.Seek(pos1, SeekOrigin.Begin); // 6. // Read the next 2000 bytes or required number of bytes int the byte array(int required had to be found out ). //int required = 20000; //byte[] by = b.ReadBytes(required); //.8 convert to bit array //BitArray myBits = new BitArray(by); byte[] value = { 0x11 }; BitArray myBits = new BitArray(value); } Console.ReadLine(); } } } ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- and the following is the data which i gets when i try to open this file with visual studio: ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿþS€DŠ4 ÝýÝÝ}ÕÝ]ÕÝÞÝÝÔÜ¹ÚMŒ×M[Ôm4Ò]Ð\íÍ|ÍÌÜÄÌÜÎÍLÛÎLæÎŒðÏ|øÏŒöÏ\öÏLòÏ ðÏ,öÏ¼úÏíÐ½Ñ=Ñ]ÐÝÏìóÎ|ÚÌÜ¾ÊÌ˜È\qÆ OÃÌ-Â 9Ô­]ÖÍ}Ù-œÚm±Û]¼ÛýÀÛÝ²ÚÝªÚ­šÙ]‰Ø]€Ö½]Õ >Ò­ÐÍÏ\çÍŒËË¬§ÉÌ"Èì‡Ç¬kÅ¬KÃ|#À«ó¾Ì»Ë¯º+•¸«~·i¶ÜÝØÝ×Ým×Ý½ÛÝmÍÜ²ÙíˆÖíVÔ=5ÒmÐLïÎÙÍLÙÍ|ÚÍüåÎ¼ðÏŒþÏìþÏüþÏìÿÏÜûÏ¬

Niradhip Chakraborty · Answer

If you have one binary files with some header, body, etc. Well you might find the following functions very handy: You supply an object, e.g your custom structure/class. Returns: byte array, you can simply write using BinaryWriter in a file. public static byte[] RawSerialize( object anything ) { int rawsize = Marshal.SizeOf( anything ); IntPtr buffer = Marshal.AllocHGlobal( rawsize ); Marshal.StructureToPtr( anything, buffer, false ); byte[] rawdatas = new byte[ rawsize ]; Marshal.Copy( buffer, rawdatas, 0, rawsize ); Marshal.FreeHGlobal( buffer ); return rawdatas; } For the next one you supply the bytes read from BinaryReader as well as the type of your suctom structure to cast later to. Returns object, representing you structure. Note: you must cast to your structure. public static object RawDeserialize( byte[] rawdatas, Type anytype ) { int rawsize = Marshal.SizeOf( anytype ); if( rawsize > rawdatas.Length ) return null; IntPtr buffer = Marshal.AllocHGlobal( rawsize ); Marshal.Copy( rawdatas, 0, buffer, rawsize ); object retobj = Marshal.PtrToStructure( buffer, anytype ); Marshal.FreeHGlobal( buffer ); return retobj; } Now you might need some example how to use the functions above in real life example. Lets first have a custo structure: [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] struct SomeFileHeader { [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 4)] public string Signature; public Int32 Offset; public Int32 Length; } At last here is an example(you should have already binaryReader assoc to a file): //our custom structure SomeFileHeader someFileHeader =new SomeFileHeader(); //temp byte array buffer private byte[] buf =new byte[Marshal.SizeOf(SomeFileHeader )); //Read the header from the file stream and save it to an byte array buf = binaryReader.ReadBytes(Marshal.SizeOf(SomeFileHead er )); //Deserialization of the byte array (buf) to out PakHeader structure someFileHeader = (SomeFileHeader ) RawDeserialize(buf,someFileHeader .GetType()); After that you should be able to read all members from your struct.