Hex to binary character array

Hi,

I am trying to convert an Heaxdecimal data to a binary format. The value is extracted from a CSV files and I get a value (1 x 102 char). Each of the are comprise between 0 and f, but the function hex2dec do not interpret this type of data directly. I am unable to convert this string to binary nor decimal.

>> a = Data{1,12}{1,33}{1,1}
a =
    '"8000000000200000000000000000000005e380924000012808800000c0000000000000000013f000111f0000000000000000"'

>> hex2dec(a)
Error using hex2dec>hex2decImpl (line 58)
Input to hex2dec should have just 0-9, a-f, or A-F.
Error in hex2dec (line 21)
        d = hex2decImpl(h);

Would you know which way I will be able to convert this data?

Regards,

Yannick

[Voss]

Looks like a has some double quotes in there that may be causing the problem.

Answer 1

[Les Beckham]

This string is way too long to be converted to a decimal (or binary) number directly. It is actually 100 hex digits long (not 102 as you say in your question).

To convert this string to binary on a byte-by-byte basis (two characters per byte) you can do this:

a = '8000000000200000000000000000000005e380924000012808800000c0000000000000000013f000111f0000000000000000';
>> binresult = dec2bin(hex2dec(reshape(a, numel(a)/2, [])))

binresult =

  50×8 char array

    '10001000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00001100'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00100000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000001'
    '00000011'
    '00001111'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000001'
    '00000001'
    '00000001'
    '01011111'
    '11100000'
    '00110000'
    '10000000'
    '00000000'
    '10010000'
    '00100000'
    '01000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00000000'
    '00010000'
    '00100000'
    '10000000'
    '00000000'
    '10000000'
    

Note that this only works if the number of characters in the string is even.

For 16 bit binary results change numel(a)/2 to numel(a)/4.

Note that Benjamin's comment is correct, you can't surround a string or char vector with both single and double quotes. For this, use the single quotes to create a char vector. If your data is a string, try replacing a in the above with char(a).

[madhan ravi]

+1

 a = regexprep(a, '"', '');

[Les Beckham]

Looking at my result again convinces me that it is not correct. The reshape command is not doing what I expected. For example, the first two bytes of your result should be '10000000', but my answer gives '10001000'. I've not yet figured out why.

I also noticed that if I attempt to take Walter's result (b) and reshape it into individual bytes, I still don't get what I would expect. Obviously I have something to learn about the reshape command.

[Yannick Pratte]

Thanks guys! That works!

[Walter Roberson]

reshape() works down columns, but dec2bin() creates rows. That's why I had the transpose after the dec2bin: make the rows of bits into columns so that the reshape() will put them adjacent the way you want

A = [11 12 13 14;
     21 22 23 24];
 A(:) -> [11 21 12 22 13 23 14 24].'
 reshape(A',1,[]) -> [11 12 13 14 21 22 23 24]

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

a = '8000000000200000000000000000000005e380924000012808800000c0000000000000000013f000111f0000000000000000';
b = reshape(dec2bin(sscanf(a, '%1x'),4).', 1, []);

or

LUT('0':'9', :) = dec2bin(0:9, 4);
LUT('a':'f', :) = dec2bin(10:15, 4);
LUT('A':'F', :) = dec2bin(10:15, 4);

a = '8000000000200000000000000000000005e380924000012808800000c0000000000000000013f000111f0000000000000000';

b = reshape(LUT(a, :).', 1, []);

Neither of these rely upon a being an even number of digits.

The lookup table method is probably more efficient.

In both cases, the "binary" that is emitted is '0' and '1' the characters rather than 0 and 1 the decimal digits. To get the decimal digits, subtract '0' (character 0), such as

LUT('0':'9', :) = dec2bin(0:9, 4) - '0';
temp = dec2bin(10:15, 4) - '0';
LUT('a':'f') = temp;
LUT('A':'F') = temp;

[madhan ravi]

+1, the lookup is more intuitive ;)