Im wondering how I can convert a binary file to a text file?
What a "binary file" and what a "text file" is is primarily determined by the files contents. So there is no "conversion" between the two, like "convert CSV to Excel format". The latter is just two representations of the same thing - tabular data - but the former are simply different types of contents.
There are (today rather unusual) meanings of "text file" as containing compiled code (calling a relocatible object file before linking "text" was the IBM speak of the seventies) and if you are using the term this way you will have to use a linker. If you are using "text" in the more common meaning of "sequences of characters transporting meaning to a reading human" then there is no (common!) way to transform one into the other.
There are of course programs which use binary representations for text files (simpliest example is a packing program which packs a text file into something binary). In such a case you need to specifically reverse the algorithm (i.e use an unpack-program to restore the text file), but this means to know the used algorithm first. And even this only works if a text file was packed beforehand. Put a binary file in and another binary file will come out, packing or no packing.
If you want to search for text parts inside a binary file, this is possible: use the strings command to list readable strings within otherwise binary files:
I have a text file that is the output of a Netbackup report. The file it generates is just a plain text file with only white space between fields. For example:
Date Policy Type Kilobytes Retention
12/5/2005 WinNT Full 18329948 6 Months
I... (4 Replies)
Hi all,
I have a print control file (dflt) for Oracle which is in binary. As I am going to develope an application in Window environment, I would like to reference the dflt file. But it is in binary format and I cannot access it. Anyone can suggest me how to convert the file into text or... (5 Replies)
Hi,
I need to convert a text file formatted like this ("tshark -z conv,ip" output) to HTML:
=====================================================================================================
IPv4 Conversations
Filter:<No Filter>
| <- ... (4 Replies)
In Unix/Ksh, when I try to look inside a file it says that the file may be a binary file and if I want to see it anyway. When i say 'yes', it shows me the content filled with unreadable symbols (looks like binary). Is there a command that I can run from the Unix prompt to convert/translate that... (3 Replies)
Not sure the most effient way to do this.
I have figiured out how to extract columns with shell script, but not sure how to convert
This is what I have...
NEWDNS 04-Jun-2011 06:00:59.762 10.220.136.217 crl.verisign.com
This is what I need.... Change date, remove mil seconds,... (1 Reply)
I have a text file with irregular spacing between values which makes it really difficult to manipulate. Is there an easy way to convert it into a space delimited text file so that all the spaces, double spaces, triple spaces, tabs between numbers are converted into spaces. The file looks like this:... (5 Replies)
Hello guys,
We had to move from a DC to another, and we are now facing an "issue" with some text files.
Looks like that some of our log files are set as binary:
file TuxConnectorURA.20121012
TuxConnectorURA.20121012: data or International Language text
less TuxConnectorURA.20121012... (2 Replies)
Hi All,
I do have a file with many lines (rows) and it is space delimited. For example: I have a file named SR345_pl.txt. If I open it in an editor, it looks like this:
adfr A2 0.9345
dtgr/2 A2 0.876
fgh/3 A2 023.76
fghe/4 A2 2345
bnhy/1 A3 3456
bhy A3 0.9876
phy A5 0.987
kdrt A5... (9 Replies)
Hi All,
I have a binary file which is being exported from a Database, and i need to convert that to ASCII format. How can i achieve that? And this solution should work for any file which is given to us; means they will give different files from different tables.
Thanks in advance. (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: baranisachin
8 Replies
LEARN ABOUT PHP
xdiff_string_rabdiff
XDIFF_STRING_RABDIFF(3) 1 XDIFF_STRING_RABDIFF(3)xdiff_string_rabdiff - Make binary diff of two strings using the Rabin's polynomial fingerprinting algorithmSYNOPSIS
string xdiff_string_bdiff (string $old_data, string $new_data)
DESCRIPTION
Makes a binary diff of two strings and returns the result. The difference between this function and xdiff_string_bdiff(3) is different
algorithm used which should result in faster execution and smaller diff produced. This function works with both text and binary data.
Resulting patch can be later applied using xdiff_string_bpatch(3)/xdiff_file_bpatch(3).
For more details about differences between algorithm used please check libxdiff website.
PARAMETERS
o $old_data
- First string with binary data. It acts as "old" data.
o $new_data
- Second string with binary data. It acts as "new" data.
RETURN VALUES
Returns string with binary diff containing differences between "old" and "new" data or FALSE if an internal error occurred.
SEE ALSO xdiff_string_bpatch(3).
PHP Documentation Group XDIFF_STRING_RABDIFF(3)