Converting Binary String into byte and not char while writing to file

Question

I want to write the file as byte only and not the character.

String binaryString = "10110101"

I am using

byte mybyte  = Byte.parseByte(binaryString,2);

I want to write this converted byte into the file as a byte and not the character.

I am using :

FileOutputStream fos1 = new FileOutputStream(new File("output"));
fos.write(mybyte);

But after write, when I see the files the byte is actually written as the characters.

Is I am doing something wrong in conversion ? How to make it write as byte and not char ?

Edit:

Like for the String 101101010111001011111000 (taking 8 bits at a time and then writing to the file) : it is converted to "Z9|".

"But after write, when I see the files the byte is actually written as the characters." - how are you "seeing" that? A short but complete program demonstrating the problem would help. — Jon Skeet
– Jon Skeet, Commented Jan 22, 2014 at 14:05
(In fact, Byte.parseByte will throw an exception for that input...) — Jon Skeet
– Jon Skeet, Commented Jan 22, 2014 at 14:07
@ Jon Skeet This is the problem that when I open the file with such byte written they are just appearing as a Character so I can see them — Gaurav
– Gaurav, Commented Jan 22, 2014 at 14:11
How did you "try the terminal window"? Like "less" or something? You really need a tool that displays HEX. — Fildor
– Fildor, Commented Jan 22, 2014 at 14:20

Njol · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-22 14:14:46Z

1

You actually write the binary data 10110101 to the file, but when you open that file in a text editor it will be displayed as a character.

If you want to write text that represent the given number (e.g. in decimal form), use a Writer:

FileOutputStream fos1 = new FileOutputStream(new File("output"));
OutputStreamWriter w = new OutputStreamWriter(fos1, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
w.write(""+mybyte); // ""+mybyte creates a string with the decimal representation of mybyte

answered Jan 22, 2014 at 14:14

Njol

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3 Comments

Gaurav Over a year ago

The Decimal representation will be converted into the character and we loose the actual byte.

Njol Over a year ago

@Gaurav this code e.g. writes the characters 105 (3 bytes) to the file instead of writing a byte like your code does. If you want an actual byte then your code is already correct (ignoring the signed bytes issue), you just have to open the file in a hex editor or similar.

Gaurav Over a year ago

I don't want all the bytes at same time, I want the data represented byte by byte in the file

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