Develop Reference

Want to write to a file converting an integer list of Hex to Char

So I have a list full of integers. These integers are hexadecimals. I would like to convert this list to ASCII Chars. Once that is done I would like to write the ASCII chars to a file. Here is what I have so far:
public byte[] buffer;
public List<int> list= new List<int>(new int[3]);
list[0] = 5445535420; //AKA header[0] represents the hex integers for Test_ where _ is a space
list[1] = 0; // so the char would be null
list[2] = 4a4153; // would be JAS
System.IO.FileStream fs;
fs = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.OpenOrCreate);
if (fs.CanWrite)
{
for (int i=0;i<list.Count();i++)
{
buffer = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(list[i].ToString());
Convert.ToChar(header[i]);
fs.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
}
}

Would this work for you? Hope comments are self-explenatory
int intFromHexLiteral = 0x4a4153;
var hexString = intFromHexLiteral.ToString("X"); // "4A4153"
var hexCharsList = Split(hexString, 2).ToList(); // ["4A", "41", "53"]
var charsArray = hexCharsList
.Select(hexChar => Convert.ToInt32(hexChar, 16)) // [74, 65, 83]
.Select(i => (char) i) // ['J', 'A', 'S']
.ToArray();
var word = new string(charsArray); // "JAS"
private static IEnumerable<string> Split(string str, int chunkSize) =>
Enumerable.Range(0, str.Length / chunkSize)
.Select(i => str.Substring(i * chunkSize, chunkSize));

An integer does not equal the bytes of the ASCII characters. I.e 1010 is not 0x1010 in hex. In your case it would make more sense to use byte[] an write each hex character explicitly.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<byte[]> list = new List<byte[]>();
list.Add(new byte[]{0x54, 0x45, 0x53, 0x54, 0x20}); //AKA header[0] represents the hex integers for Test_ where _ is a space
list.Add(new byte[]{0x0}); // so the char would be null
list.Add(new byte[]{ 0x4a, 0x41, 0x53 }); // would be JAS
foreach (var b in list)
{
var chars = Encoding.ASCII.GetChars(b);
var s = new string(chars);
Console.WriteLine(s);
}
}
}

I see that you've selected an answer, but I wanted to show you this method of solving your problem dealing with your data strictly as numeric data. The values you stick into your List<int> are small enough to fit into a long so I changed it to a List<long>. If they ever become bigger than that, than this solution would not work.
See how I broke each long element, byte by byte, in reverse and stored the conversion into a StringBuilder before writing it to the screen. In your case, you would write to a file instead, but could use the same conversion method.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
public class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<long> list = new List<long>(new long[3]);
list[0] = 0x5445535420; // AKA header[0] represents the hex integers for Test_ where _ is a space
list[1] = 0; // so the char would be null
list[2] = 0x4a4153; // would be JAS
for (int i = 0; i < list.Count; i++)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
// Break down each element byte by byte in reverse
while (list[i] > 0)
{
// Anding against 0xFF to only have the least significant byte to convert into a char
sb.Insert(0, Convert.ToChar(list[i] & 0xFF));
list[i] >>= 8; // Remove the least significant byte
}
Console.WriteLine(sb);
}
}
}
Result:
TEST
JAS

How to Divide an array on c#?

I have to do a program that read and image and puts it into a byte array
var Imagenoriginal = File.ReadAllBytes("10M.bmp");
And Divide That byte Array into 3 Diferent Arrays in order to send each one of this new arrays to other computer ( Using Pipes ) to process them there and finally take them back to the origial computer and finally give the result.
But my question Is how do I do an Algorithm able to divide the byte array in three different bytes arrays if the image selected can have diferent size.
Thanks for your help, have a nice day. =)

You can divide length of array, so you have three integers n1, n2 and n3 with all of them summing up to array.Length. Then, this snippet, using LINQ should be of help:
var arr1 = sourceArray.Take(n1).ToArray();
var arr2 = sourceArray.Skip(n1).Take(n2).ToArray();
var arr3 = sourceArray.Skip(n1+n2).Take(n3).ToArray();
Now, in arr1,arr2 and arr3 you will have three parts of your source array. You need to use LINQ, so in the beginning of the code don't forget using System.Linq;.

You can try like this:
public static IEnumerable<IEnumerable<T>> DivideArray<T>(this T[] array, int size)
{
for (var i = 0; i < (float)array.Length / size; i++)
{
yield return array.Skip(i * size).Take(size);
}
}
The call like this:
var arr = new byte[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6};
var dividedArray = arr.DivideArray(3);
Here is a LINQ approach:
public List<List<byte>> DivideArray(List<byte> arr)
{
return arr
.Select((x, i) => new { Index = i, Value = x })
.GroupBy(x => x.Index / 100)
.Select(x => x.Select(v => v.Value).ToList())
.ToList();
}

Have you considered using Streams? You could extend the Stream class to provide the desired behavior, as follows:
public static class Utilities
{
public static IEnumerable<byte[]> ReadBytes(this Stream input, long bufferSize)
{
byte[] buffer = new byte[bufferSize];
int read;
while ((read = input.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
{
using (MemoryStream tempStream = new MemoryStream())
{
tempStream.Write(buffer, 0, read);
yield return tempStream.ToArray();
}
}
}
public static IEnumerable<byte[]> ReadBlocks(this Stream input, int nblocks)
{
long bufferSize = (long)Math.Ceiling((double)input.Length / nblocks);
return input.ReadBytes(bufferSize);
}
}
The ReadBytes extension method reads the input Stream and returns its data as a sequence of byte arrays, using the specified bufferSize.
The ReadBlocks extension method calls ReadBytes with the appropriate buffer size, so that the number of elements in the sequence equals nblocks.
You could then use ReadBlocks to achieve what you want:
public class Program
{
static void Main()
{
FileStream inputStream = File.Open(#"E:\10M.bmp", FileMode.Open);
const int nblocks = 3;
foreach (byte[] block in inputStream.ReadBlocks(nblocks))
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} bytes", block.Length);
}
}
}
Note how ReadBytes uses tempStream and read to write in memory the bytes read from the input stream before converting them into an array of bytes, it solves the problem with the leftover bytes mentioned in the comments.

Joining byte arrays using a separator in C#

I want something similar to String.Join(separator_string, list_of_strings) but for byte arrays.
I need it because I am implementing a file format writer, and the specification says
"Each annotation must be encoded as UTF-8 and separated by the ASCII byte 20."
Then I would need something like:
byte separator = 20;
List<byte[]> encoded_annotations;
joined_byte_array = Something.Join(separator, encoded_annotations);

I don't believe there's anything built in, but it's easy enough to write. Here's a generic version, but you could make it do just byte arrays easily enough.
public static T[] Join<T>(T separator, IEnumerable<T[]> arrays)
{
// Make sure we only iterate over arrays once
List<T[]> list = arrays.ToList();
if (list.Count == 0)
{
return new T[0];
}
int size = list.Sum(x => x.Length) + list.Count - 1;
T[] ret = new T[size];
int index = 0;
bool first = true;
foreach (T[] array in list)
{
if (!first)
{
ret[index++] = separator;
}
Array.Copy(array, 0, ret, index, array.Length);
index += array.Length;
first = false;
}
return ret;
}

I ended up using this, tuned to my specific case of a separator consisting of one single byte (instead of an array of size one), but the general idea would apply to a separator consisting of a byte array:
public byte[] ArrayJoin(byte separator, List<byte[]> arrays)
{
using (MemoryStream result = new MemoryStream())
{
byte[] first = arrays.First();
result.Write(first, 0, first.Length);
foreach (var array in arrays.Skip(1))
{
result.WriteByte(separator);
result.Write(array, 0, array.Length);
}
return result.ToArray();
}
}

You just need to specify the desired type for the join command.
String.join<byte>(separator_string, list_of_strings);

Convert uint[] to byte[] [duplicate]

This might be a simple one, but I can't seem to find an easy way to do it. I need to save an array of 84 uint's into an SQL database's BINARY field. So I'm using the following lines in my C# ASP.NET project:
//This is what I have
uint[] uintArray;
//I need to convert from uint[] to byte[]
byte[] byteArray = ???
cmd.Parameters.Add("#myBindaryData", SqlDbType.Binary).Value = byteArray;
So how do you convert from uint[] to byte[]?

How about:
byte[] byteArray = uintArray.SelectMany(BitConverter.GetBytes).ToArray();
This'll do what you want, in little-endian format...

You can use System.Buffer.BlockCopy to do this:
byte[] byteArray = new byte[uintArray.Length * 4];
Buffer.BlockCopy(uintArray, 0, byteArray, 0, uintArray.Length * 4];
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.buffer.blockcopy.aspx
This will be much more efficient than using a for loop or some similar construct. It directly copies the bytes from the first array to the second.
To convert back just do the same thing in reverse.

There is no built-in conversion function to do this. Because of the way arrays work, a whole new array will need to be allocated and its values filled-in. You will probably just have to write that yourself. You can use the System.BitConverter.GetBytes(uint) function to do some of the work, and then copy the resulting values into the final byte[].
Here's a function that will do the conversion in little-endian format:
private static byte[] ConvertUInt32ArrayToByteArray(uint[] value)
{
const int bytesPerUInt32 = 4;
byte[] result = new byte[value.Length * bytesPerUInt32];
for (int index = 0; index < value.Length; index++)
{
byte[] partialResult = System.BitConverter.GetBytes(value[index]);
for (int indexTwo = 0; indexTwo < partialResult.Length; indexTwo++)
result[index * bytesPerUInt32 + indexTwo] = partialResult[indexTwo];
}
return result;
}

byte[] byteArray = Array.ConvertAll<uint, byte>(
uintArray,
new Converter<uint, byte>(
delegate(uint u) { return (byte)u; }
));
Heed advice from #liho1eye, make sure your uints really fit into bytes, otherwise you're losing data.

If you need all the bits from each uint, you're gonna to have to make an appropriately sized byte[] and copy each uint into the four bytes it represents.
Something like this ought to work:
uint[] uintArray;
//I need to convert from uint[] to byte[]
byte[] byteArray = new byte[uintArray.Length * sizeof(uint)];
for (int i = 0; i < uintArray.Length; i++)
{
byte[] barray = System.BitConverter.GetBytes(uintArray[i]);
for (int j = 0; j < barray.Length; j++)
{
byteArray[i * sizeof(uint) + j] = barray[j];
}
}
cmd.Parameters.Add("#myBindaryData", SqlDbType.Binary).Value = byteArray;

C# - Cast a byte array to an array of struct and vice-versa (reverse)

I would like to save a Color[] to a file. To do so, I found that saving a byte array to a file using "System.IO.File.WriteAllBytes" should be very efficient.
I would like to cast my Color[] (array of struct) to a byte array into a safe way considering:
Potential problem of little endian / big endian (I think it is impossible to happen but want to be sure)
Having 2 differents pointer to the same memory which point to different type. Does the garbage collection will know what to do - moving objects - deleting a pointer ???
If it is possible, it would be nice to have a generic way to cast array of byte to array of any struct (T struct) and vice-versa.
If not possible, why ?
Thanks,
Eric
I think that those 2 solutions make a copy that I would like to avoid and also they both uses Marshal.PtrToStructure which is specific to structure and not to array of structure:
Reading a C/C++ data structure in C# from a byte array
How to convert a structure to a byte array in C#?

Since .NET Core 2.1, yes we can! Enter MemoryMarshal.
We will treat our Color[] as a ReadOnlySpan<Color>. We reinterpret that as a ReadOnlySpan<byte>. Finally, since WriteAllBytes has no span-based overload, we use a FileStream to write the span to disk.
var byteSpan = MemoryMarshal.AsBytes(colorArray.AsSpan());
fileStream.Write(byteSpan);
As an interesting side note, you can also experiment with the [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit)] as an attribute on your fields. It allows you to specify overlapping fields, effectively allowing the concept of a union.
Here is a blog post on MSDN that illustrates this. It shows the following code:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit)]
public struct MyUnion
{
[FieldOffset(0)]
public UInt16 myInt;
[FieldOffset(0)]
public Byte byte1;
[FieldOffset(1)]
public Byte byte2;
}
In this example, the UInt16 field overlaps with the two Byte fields.
This seems to be strongly related to what you are trying to do. It gets you very close, except for the part of writing all the bytes (especially of multiple Color objects) efficiently. :)

Regarding Array Type Conversion
C# as a language intentionally makes the process of flattening objects or arrays into byte arrays difficult because this approach goes against the principals of .NET strong typing. The conventional alternatives include several serialization tools which are generally seen a safer and more robust, or manual serialization coding such as BinaryWriter.
Having two variables of different types point to the same object in memory can only be performed if the types of the variables can be cast, implicitly or explicitly. Casting from an array of one element type to another is no trivial task: it would have to convert the internal members that keep track of things such as array length, etc.
A simple way to write and read Color[] to file
void WriteColorsToFile(string path, Color[] colors)
{
BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(File.OpenWrite(path));
writer.Write(colors.Length);
foreach(Color color in colors)
{
writer.Write(color.ToArgb());
}
writer.Close();
}
Color[] ReadColorsFromFile(string path)
{
BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(File.OpenRead(path));
int length = reader.ReadInt32();
Colors[] result = new Colors[length];
for(int n=0; n<length; n++)
{
result[n] = Color.FromArgb(reader.ReadInt32());
}
reader.Close();
}

You could use pointers if you really want to copy each byte and not have a copy but the same object, similar to this:
var structPtr = (byte*)&yourStruct;
var size = sizeof(YourType);
var memory = new byte[size];
fixed(byte* memoryPtr = memory)
{
for(int i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
*(memoryPtr + i) = *structPtr++;
}
}
File.WriteAllBytes(path, memory);
I just tested this and after adding the fixed block and some minor corrections it looks like it is working correctly.
This is what I used to test it:
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
var a = new s { i = 1, j = 2 };
var sPtr = (byte*)&a;
var size = sizeof(s);
var mem = new byte[size];
fixed (byte* memPtr = mem)
{
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
*(memPtr + i) = *sPtr++;
}
}
File.WriteAllBytes("A:\\file.txt", mem);
}
struct s
{
internal int i;
internal int j;
}
The result is the following:
(I manually resolved the hex bytes in the second line, only the first line was produced by the program)

public struct MyX
{
public int IntValue;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray, SizeConst = 3, ArraySubType = UnmanagedType.U1)]
public byte[] Array;
MyX(int i, int b)
{
IntValue = b;
Array = new byte[3];
}
public MyX ToStruct(byte []ar)
{
byte[] data = ar;//= { 1, 0, 0, 0, 9, 8, 7 }; // IntValue = 1, Array = {9,8,7}
IntPtr ptPoit = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(data.Length);
Marshal.Copy(data, 0, ptPoit, data.Length);
MyX x = (MyX)Marshal.PtrToStructure(ptPoit, typeof(MyX));
Marshal.FreeHGlobal(ptPoit);
return x;
}
public byte[] ToBytes()
{
Byte[] bytes = new Byte[Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(MyX))];
GCHandle pinStructure = GCHandle.Alloc(this, GCHandleType.Pinned);
try
{
Marshal.Copy(pinStructure.AddrOfPinnedObject(), bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
return bytes;
}
finally
{
pinStructure.Free();
}
}
}
void function()
{
byte[] data = { 1, 0, 0, 0, 9, 8, 7 }; // IntValue = 1, Array = {9,8,7}
IntPtr ptPoit = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(data.Length);
Marshal.Copy(data, 0, ptPoit, data.Length);
var x = (MyX)Marshal.PtrToStructure(ptPoit, typeof(MyX));
Marshal.FreeHGlobal(ptPoit);
var MYstruc = x.ToStruct(data);
Console.WriteLine("x.IntValue = {0}", x.IntValue);
Console.WriteLine("x.Array = ({0}, {1}, {2})", x.Array[0], x.Array[1], x.Array[2]);
}

Working code for reference (take care, I did not need the alpha channel in my case):
// ************************************************************************
// If someday Microsoft make Color serializable ...
//public static void SaveColors(Color[] colors, string path)
//{
// BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
// MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
// bf.Serialize(ms, colors);
// byte[] bytes = ms.ToArray();
// File.WriteAllBytes(path, bytes);
//}
// If someday Microsoft make Color serializable ...
//public static Colors[] LoadColors(string path)
//{
// Byte[] bytes = File.ReadAllBytes(path);
// BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
// MemoryStream ms2 = new MemoryStream(bytes);
// return (Colors[])bf.Deserialize(ms2);
//}
// ******************************************************************
public static void SaveColorsToFile(Color[] colors, string path)
{
var formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
int count = colors.Length;
using (var stream = File.OpenWrite(path))
{
formatter.Serialize(stream, count);
for (int index = 0; index < count; index++)
{
formatter.Serialize(stream, colors[index].R);
formatter.Serialize(stream, colors[index].G);
formatter.Serialize(stream, colors[index].B);
}
}
}
// ******************************************************************
public static Color[] LoadColorsFromFile(string path)
{
var formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
Color[] colors;
using (var stream = File.OpenRead(path))
{
int count = (int)formatter.Deserialize(stream);
colors = new Color[count];
for (int index = 0; index < count; index++)
{
byte r = (byte)formatter.Deserialize(stream);
byte g = (byte)formatter.Deserialize(stream);
byte b = (byte)formatter.Deserialize(stream);
colors[index] = Color.FromRgb(r, g, b);
}
}
return colors;
}
// ******************************************************************