>>>>>Hi All, just messing around - not a work thing - if I have a string of binary digits such as
>>>>>
>>>>>

>>>>>string s = "0101000001000101010101000100010101010010"
>>>>>

>>>>>
>>>>>how do I convert it to text ?, all the Convert.* methods I've looked at require a byte[] array as an arg and I don't know how to create one !
>>>>
>>>>Pete,
>>>>
>>>>I'm not sure whether it's the best way to go , and I have not tested it either, but
>>>>
>>>>(1) initialize a BitArray
>>>>(2) loop throught the string and assign the elements of the bitArray depending on 0 or 1
>>>>(3) initialize a Byte array
>>>>(4) I see that the BitARray has a CopyTo method wich accepts a Byte array
>>>>http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.bitarray.copyto.aspx
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Alternatively, you can directly create a byte array and loop through the string
>>>>
>>>>

>>>>if( string[stringindex] == '1' ) {
>>>>	the byte index = stringIndex / 8
>>>>	the bit to set =  7 - (stringIndex %8),
>>>>
>>>>	// you may have to cast the right hand side to (byte)
>>>>
>>>>	byteArray[ stringIndex / 8] |= ( 1 <<  (  7 - (stringIndex %8)))
>>>>
>>>>	or maybe due to widening
>>>>	byteArray[ stringIndex / 8]  = (byte)( byteArray[ stringIndex / 8]  | byteArray[ stringIndex / 8] | ( 1 <<  (  7 - (stringIndex %8))))
>>>>}
>>>>

>>>
>>>Hi Greg, thanks for your time - if you see my reply to Neil I can create the byte array but the ConvertToBase64String method returns rubbish. I read the M$ article and can't really see the point of BitArrays ? - maybe that's me :-(
>>
>>
>>(1) BitArray - was my first thought - not the best way
>>(2) ConvertToBase64String: I thought it was a binary string - base 64 encoding is something else
>>
>>(3) I see Viv has come up with a faster way
>
>Just to exercise my new found 'Effective C#' knowledge :-} :

static IEnumerable<char> GetChars(string s)
>   {
>        return Enumerable.Range(0, s.Length / 8).Select(i =>
>        Convert.ToChar(Convert.ToInt32(s.Substring(i * 8, 8),2)));
>    }

then

string result = string.Empty;
>foreach (char c in GetChars(s1))
>{
>     result += c;
> }

> Nothing like making it complicated when simple would do :-}


haha - Well, at least you like the book - and it explores a few things


I have the impression it can still be done in a shorter way - with lambda expressions - but I have not touched C# in 7 months