C++ convert a single binary char to int number

Question

I tried to search for answer and couldn't find a similar question. I have an array of chars, where i need to store in the array numbers. The numbers can only be one char (not a string or more the one index in the array)

for example, 3 will turn to 11 and then to a char (mostly gibberish)

Now I want to reverse the process and from the single char c, I want to present the number in decimal form. I tried number of things, but I don’t fully understand the bitwise operations to find the number. I would very appreciate your help!

Answer 1

The problem is that you mix up two different types, i.e., int and char. You cannot simply convert a binary representation of an int to a single char because they have a different number of bytes used to represent them. With a char, you can represent only 256 different numbers.

Below I post a code example that converts an int to a binary representation and from this back to an int.

• decToBin(int val, int* binaryNum) gets a value that is converted from decimal to binary. binaryNum is an array to store the result.
• binToDec(int* binaryNum) converts the binary representation to an int and returns it
• clearBinNum(int* binaryNum) clears the binary representation wiht 0
• printBinNumber(int* binaryNum) is a helper to print the binary representation
• binToChar(int* binaryNum) converts a binary representation to a char and returns it
• charToDec(char charNum) converts a char to a decimal representation using only bit-operations

---

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// This is the number of bits used to
// represent an variable of type int.
int bit_pos_count = sizeof(int) * 8;

// ---------------------------------------------------------- //
void
decToBin(int val, int* binaryNum) {
  int bit_pos = 0;
  while (val > 0) {
    if (val % 2 == 1)
      binaryNum[bit_pos] = 1;
    else
      binaryNum[bit_pos] = 0;
    val = val / 2; // integer division
    ++bit_pos;
  }
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------- //
void
clearBinNumber(int* binaryNum) {
  for (int i = 0; i < bit_pos_count; ++i)
    binaryNum[i] = 0;
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------- //
void
printBinNumber(int* binaryNum) {
  for (int i = bit_pos_count - 1; i >= 0; --i)
    cout << binaryNum[i];
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------- //
int
binToDec(int* binaryNum) {
  int result = 0;
  for (int i = bit_pos_count - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
    result = result << 1;
    if (binaryNum[i] == 1)
      result = result | 1;
  }
  return result;
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------- //
char
binToChar(int* binaryNum) {
  int  char_size = sizeof(char) * 8;
  char result    = 0;
  for (int i = char_size - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
    result = result << 1;
    if (binaryNum[i] == 1)
      result = result | 1;
  }
  return result;
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------- //
int
charToDec(char charNum) {
  int  char_size = sizeof(char) * 8;
  char result    = 0;
  int  compare   = 1;
  for (int i = 0; i < char_size; ++i) {
    if ((charNum & compare) != 0)
      result = result | compare;
    compare = compare * 2;
  }
  return result;
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------- //
int
main(int argc, char const* argv[]) {
  cout << bit_pos_count << endl;
  int* binaryNum = new int[bit_pos_count];

  // printable chars start at 33
  for (int i = 33; i < 66; i += 1) {
    decToBin(i, binaryNum);
    char charNum = binToChar(binaryNum);

    cout << "decimal:             " << i << endl;
    cout << "binary:              ";
    printBinNumber(binaryNum);
    cout << endl;
    cout << "decimal from binary: " << binToDec(binaryNum) << endl;
    cout << "char from binary:    " << charNum << endl;
    cout << "decimal from char:   " << charToDec(charNum) << endl;
    cout << "---" << endl;
  }

  delete[] binaryNum;
}

---

decimal:             33
binary:              00000000000000000000000000100001
decimal from binary: 33
char from binary:    !
decimal from char:   33
---
decimal:             34
binary:              00000000000000000000000000100010
decimal from binary: 34
char from binary:    "
decimal from char:   34
---
decimal:             35
binary:              00000000000000000000000000100011
decimal from binary: 35
char from binary:    #
decimal from char:   35
---