Converting a "binary string" into a byte or char?

[PSYCHONAUT]

I've been trying to figure this out for hours now, and I've given up on trying to solve it myself. Basically what I need to do, is convert a "double octet" binary string, such as "11010011 01011101", into a byte or char type if possible.

I use the following code to convert my Unicode text into binary:

    Private Function ByteToStr(ByVal bt() As Byte) As String
       Dim st As New StringBuilder
       For Each byt As Byte In bt
           st.Append(Convert.ToString(byt, 2).PadLeft(8, "0"c) & " ")
       Next
       Return st.ToString
    End Function

    Private Function TxtToBin(ByVal Str As String) As String
       Return ByteToStr(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(Str.ToCharArray))
    End Function

And that seems to work perfectly, I get the results I'm after. But how do I then convert those results back into a string? So far, the only code that has worked for me is this:

     Private Function BinToStr(ByVal BinStr As String)
        Dim str() As String = BinStr.Split(" "c)
        Dim bt As New List(Of Byte)
        For Each s As String In str
            For Each d As Byte In Convert.FromBase64String(s)
                bt.Add(d)
            Next
        Next
        Return Encoding.Unicode.GetString(bt.ToArray)
    End Function

But that gives me weird results. The "Convert.FromBase64String" obviously isn't what I'm after. Any help would be great. If I can convert the "binary string" into a bytes or chars I can get it into a string.

EDIT: I suppose I'm dealing with the hexadecimal base, 16 bits? I really don't know much about base numbers or encoding...

[Shaggy Hiker]

The problem is that you don't really have a binary string, you just have a string. Each character is either a byte representing 1, a byte representing 0, or a byte representing a space. If it is unicode, then you would have two bytes for each, of course. Therefore, each byte is translated into 8 or 16 bytes, depending on what type of string. Now you want to take it all back. I'm not sure there is an efficient way to do this, as there often isn't an efficient way to work with strings. What you could do would be to take the string and split on spaces. This will give you an array of strings where each string is a single byte. You would then loop through each string, looking at each character, and adding it back into a byte. It would look something like this:

dim bt as Byte

For x = 0 to 7
 If st1.Substring(x,1) = "1" then
  bt = (bt OR (1<<x))
 End If
Next

Not efficient, and not tested, but it should work for one byte. The same thing would have to be done for each byte in the whole string.

[minitech]

For integers (and I changed your code a bit, SH):

Dim bt As Integer = 0
Dim cpos As Integer = st1.Trim().Length
For x = 0 to st1.Length - 1
     Select Case st1.Chars(x)
          Case "0"c
          Case "1"c
               bt = bt Or (1 << cpos)
          Case Else
               Continue For
     End Select
     cpos -= 1
Next

Remember, binary is RTL!

[PSYCHONAUT]

Ok, I've got this, I seem to be getting closer, but it's displaying different unicode characters than the ones I initially supplied:

    Private Function BinToUni(ByVal BinStr As String)
        Dim stA() As String = BinStr.Split(" "c)
        Dim bl As New List(Of Byte)
        Dim bt As Byte = Nothing
        For c = 1 To stA.Length
            For x = 0 To 7
                If stA(c - 1).Substring(x, 1) = "1" Then
                    bt = (bt Or (1 << x))
                End If
            Next
            bl.Add(bt)
            bt = Nothing
        Next
        Return Encoding.Unicode.GetString(bl.ToArray)
    End Function

I also tried the following:
ok, I just tried the following:

    Private Function BinToUni(ByVal BinStr As String)
        Dim stA() As String = BinStr.Split(" "c)
        Dim bl As New List(Of Byte)
        For Each s As String In stA
            bl.Add(Convert.ToByte(s))
        Next
        Return Encoding.Unicode.GetString(bl.ToArray)
    End Function

But I keep getting this error: "Value was either too large or too small for an unsigned byte." That error happens for this line: bl.Add(Convert.ToByte(s))

[minitech]

It thinks you want to store a value of something like one thousand one - "1001" - in a Byte.

    Private Function BinToUni(ByVal BinStr As String)
        Dim stA() As String = BinStr.Split(" "c)
        Dim bl As New List(Of Byte)
        Dim bt As Byte = Nothing
        For c = 1 To stA.Length
            Dim bt As Integer = 0
            Dim cpos As Integer = stA(c-1).Trim().Length
            For x = 0 to stA(c-1).Length - 1
                 Select Case stA(c-1).Chars(x)
                      Case "0"c
                      Case "1"c
                           bt = bt Or (1 << cpos)
                      Case Else
                           Continue For
                 End Select
                 cpos -= 1
            Next
        Next
        Return Encoding.Unicode.GetString(bl.ToArray)
    End Function

(SH's code doesn't work.)

[PSYCHONAUT]

minitech, thanks for the great help. I tried the following, but it returned gibberish, I must still be doing something wrong:

       Private Function BinToUni(ByVal BinStr As String)
        Dim stA() As String = BinStr.Split(" "c)
        Dim bl As New List(Of Byte)
        For c = 1 To stA.Length
            Dim bt As Integer = 0
            Dim cpos As Integer = stA(c - 1).Trim().Length
            For x = 0 To stA(c - 1).Length - 1
                Select Case stA(c - 1).Chars(x)
                    Case "0"c
                    Case "1"c
                        bt = bt Or (1 << cpos)
                    Case Else
                        Continue For
                End Select
                cpos -= 1
            Next
            bl.Add(bt)
        Next
        Return Encoding.Unicode.GetString(bl.ToArray)
    End Function

EDIT: Oooops, there was a massive mistake there, I fixed it up, and changed the code above. I typed in "test", I converted it to binary, which gave me:

01110100 00000000 01100101 00000000 01110011 00000000 01110100 00000000

I then tried converting it back to text and it gave me:

èÊæè

[PSYCHONAUT]

ok guys, never mind, the solution was actually simple all along, I could have sworn I tried it, but oh well. For anyone that might find it useful, here it is:

    Private Function BinToTxt(ByVal BinStr As String)
        Dim stA() As String = BinStr.Split(" "c)
        Dim bl As New List(Of Byte)
        For Each s As String In stA
            bl.Add(Convert.ToByte(s, 2))
        Next
        Return Encoding.Unicode.GetString(bl.ToArray)
    End Function

    Private Function TxtToBin(ByVal Str As String) As String
        Dim bt() As Byte = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(Str.ToCharArray)
        Dim st As New StringBuilder
        For Each byt As Byte In bt
            st.Append(Convert.ToString(byt, 2).PadLeft(8, "0"c) & " ")
        Next
        Return st.ToString
    End Function

            'Example usage:
            'OutTxt.Text = TxtToBin(InTxt.Text)
            'OutTxt.Text = BinToTxt(InTxt.Text)

EDIT: Updated code.