How to add chars numerically in c#

Question

So I'm building a program that takes a string and turns it into a binary number (IE "A" = 01000001). Then, if the user wishes, it can that binary number convert it back into a ascii character. Here the code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace NDR_011
{
class Program
{

    public static Byte[] BinStr(String binary)
    {
        var list = new List<Byte>();

        for (int i = 0; i < binary.Length; i += 8)
        {
            String t = binary.Substring(i, 8);

            list.Add(Convert.ToByte(t, 2));
        }

        return list.ToArray();
    }

    public static void Print(object mess)
    {
        string tmp = mess.ToString().ToUpper();
        Console.Write(tmp);
    }

    private static List<string> buffer = new List<string>();
    private static string outfile = "C:/tmp/bytes.bin";
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string tmp = "";
        Print("NDR 011\n");
        while (true)
        {
            Print(""); tmp = Console.ReadKey().Key.ToString().ToUpper();
            if (Console.CursorLeft > 0) 
            {
                Console.SetCursorPosition(Console.CursorLeft - 1, Console.CursorTop);
            }
            if (tmp == ConsoleKey.F1.ToString())
            {
                break;
            } else if (tmp == ConsoleKey.F2.ToString())
            {
                comp();

                continue;
            } else if (tmp == ConsoleKey.F4.ToString())
            {
                buffer.Clear();

                continue;
            } else if (tmp == ConsoleKey.F5.ToString())
            {
                Print("N "); string a = Console.ReadLine();
                outfile = a;

                continue;
            } else if (tmp == ConsoleKey.F5.ToString())
            {
                outfile = "C:/tmp/bytes.bin";
                Print("Out file reset\n");

                continue;
            } else if (tmp == ConsoleKey.F7.ToString())
            {
                //Print("N "); // string a = Console.ReadLine();
                string a = "C:/tmp/bytes.bin";
                string[] s = File.ReadAllText(a).Split(' ');
                char[] end = new char[s.Length - 1];
                for (int i=0;i<end.Length;i++)
                {
                    end[i] = (char)BinStr(s[i])[0];
                    //Print(end[i]);
                }
                //Print((char)BinStr(s[0])[0]);
                if (end[0] == 'A' && end[1] == 'D' && end[2] == 'D')
                {
                    for (int i=0+3;i<end.Length;i++)
                    {
                        int n = end[i] + end[i];
                        Print(n);
                    }
                }
                //decompile(a);

                continue;
            }
            while (tmp.Length > 1)
            {
                char a = tmp[tmp.Length - 1];
                tmp = a.ToString();
            }
            buffer.Add(tmp);
        }
    }
    static void comp()
    {
        if (buffer == null || buffer.Count <= 0)
        {
            Print("Error buffer empty");
            return;
        }
        char[] r = new char[buffer.Count];
        for (int i=0;i<buffer.Count;i++)
        {
            r[i] = Convert.ToChar(buffer[i]);
            Print(r[i]);
        }
        foreach (char ch in r)
        {
            string a = Convert.ToString((int)ch, 2);
            while (a.Length != 8)
            {
                string b = "0";
                a = b + a;
            }
            File.AppendAllText(outfile, a + " ");
        }
        Print("Compile done!\n");
    }
    static void decompile(string filename)
    {

    }
    static void run()
    {

    }
}
}

(the indenation got messed up when I add to this post.)

The problem is this: when I try to add the values I get from the file I get random numbers like: 100102, and odd stuff like that. What am I doing wrong? Thanks

Answer 1

Here's how you convert a string to a binary string of 1s and 0s:

var binstring = string.Join(" ", Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(("Welcome, World!")).Select(byt => Convert.ToString(byt, 2).PadLeft(8, '0')));

To convert that back into a string, we will need to a parse byte[] array from it with a method like so:

public static byte[] GetBytes(string s)
        {
            byte[] result = new byte[(s.Length + 7) / 8];

            int i = 0;
            int j = 0;
            foreach (char c in s)
            {
                result[i] <<= 1;
                if (c == '1')
                    result[i] |= 1;
                j++;
                if (j == 8)
                {
                    i++;
                    j = 0;
                }
            }
            return result;
        }

Then we get those bytes and we can simply convert it into a string using:

Encoding.ASCII.GetString(GetBytes(binstring));

References:
How could I encode a string of 1s and 0s for transport?
How to get the binary code behind ASCII (C#)