Convert from a binary to char in C

Question

I'm flummoxed by how to convert from a binary value to a char in c.

For example, let's say I have 01010110 and want to print the corresponding letter 'V' from that. How do I do this?

Thanks for any help!

What do you mean you have "1010110"? The binary number in a register, the 1/0 characters, what? (If it's the binary value, a `(char)` cast is all you need.) — Hot Licks, May 30 '12 at 22:35

score 18 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

18

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
    char *data = "01010110";
    char c = strtol(data, 0, 2);
    printf("%s = %c = %d = 0x%.2X\n", data, c, c, c);
    return(0);
}

Output:

01010110 = V = 86 = 0x56

References:

edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

Community

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answered May 30 '12 at 22:38

Jonathan Leffler

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score 6 · Answer 2 · edited May 30 '12 at 23:06

6

You can use strtol() to parse a number on a string. The last argument (in this case 2) is the radix for the conversion.

char c = strtol("01010110", (char **)NULL, 2);

More information about this and other number parsing functions here.

edited May 30 '12 at 23:06

Jonathan Leffler

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answered May 30 '12 at 22:42

fbafelipe

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score -2 · Answer 3 · answered May 30 '12 at 23:09

-2

Did something slightly different:

From the binary, I mathematically calculated the int and simply casted the int into a char.

int i;
char c = (char)i;

answered May 30 '12 at 23:09

Jordan

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The final conversion is self-evident; the hand-waving 'from the binary, I mathematically calculated the int' contains no useful information. – Jonathan Leffler Aug 04 '16 at 15:25

Convert from a binary to char in C

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