Binary Files

[FransBotes]

Hi..
I have a BinaryFile, actualy an xbox roster file. I need to read and write from it.
I want to start reading it from a certain hex pattern until the next hex pattern etc. throughout the file.

Information:
...Nicol..sVergallo. .....E..GHKKIYQSVIHG....M7WLKFHd22.R.......1z.[>.............................................................
EstebanLozada..O..3I@9&...A.UG=V.Z=JEQ?.Gd22..R.?..........1t.Y>.............................................................
This is where 2 players is stored, before each player name the following pattern occurs: 08 01 0F. I want to read between each pattern.

Thanks
Frans

[blaurent]

Hi,

I have no experience with this kind of format of file but this appears to be a text file?

What kind of information is it you want to extract/write to that file? Also what do the information you quoted from the file represent?

If this is a text file and not just some garbage copied from a binary file then yes, you should be able to write a parser for that file.

Hope I could help


Laurent

[FransBotes]

This is data copied from a binary file. I can read the whole file in a byte array.

I only want to read each player. The binary for that values are:4E69636F6CC3A17356657267616C6C6F06201E0C07CF094500AA47484B4B49595153564948470C0705094D37574C4B46486432320252050203020E0206317A845B3E001B19010D0809090901080801020101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010108080F0107090808080909080801080108010F
As you can see after each player the binary pattern: 80108010F repeats itself. i need to extract the values between these patterns
4573746562616E4C6F7A61646106044F00FE33494039261C2E17410455473D56085A3D4A45513F1E47643232020C52053FE0000000000000030406317484593E001919010D0801010201010801020101010101010101010101010101090901010101010101010101010101080F01090908080809090808080 80108010F

[FransBotes]

I have now loaded the file into a byte array and converted it to string. Here is an example of how the string would look:

537465766554686F6D70736F6E07200F0707BA024A00FF494845433A4B4838410C485855545352344B552B23424A64323202080A0C52050606317486233E001317010F0801010201010101020101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101090101080F0109090908080909080108080108010F42656E466F64656E0720160707C10F090B4800CA4B42524F4C48444B553D4B41380A03054A3C554A524B4064323204065205030606317186373E001317010F0801010209080801020101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101080F0108080108080809080808080908010F
I want to search this string for the pattern: 08010F

I then want to extract the string between the patterns.
Please Help

[Arjay]

Become familiar with the String class in msdn and what it has to offer. With a string, you can use IndexOf to search for a sequence of characters within a string.

            // Byte array simulating the file load
            var a = new byte [ ] { 0x11, 0x2f, 0x08, 0x01, 0x0f, 0x18, 0x11, 0x2f, 0x08, 0x01, 0x0f, 0x18, 0x11, 0x2f };
            
            var fileData = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(a);

            var bytesToSearch = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(new byte [ ] { 0x08, 0x01, 0x0f} );

            // Searches at the beginning of the string - returns index 2 (finds the 1st byte series)
            var index = fileData.IndexOf(bytesToSearch, 0);

            // Searches 1 char past the beginning of the string - returns 8 (gets the 2nd byte series)
            index = fileData.IndexOf( bytesToSearch, index + 1 );

[Mutant_Fruit]

Become familiar with the String class in msdn and what it has to offer. With a string, you can use IndexOf to search for a sequence of characters within a string.

You should also check how to convert bytes to strings without data loss See this link for ascii encoding: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...ing.ascii.aspx . Here is the relevant quote:

The ASCIIEncoding object that is returned by this property might not have the appropriate behavior for your application. It uses replacement fallback to replace each string that it cannot encode and each byte that it cannot decode with a question mark ("?") character.

Don't ever use UTF8, ASCII, UTF16 etc if you have a random array of bytes that you want to represent as a string. Base64 encode it if it must be treated as a string, otherwise you *will* have data loss.

[FransBotes]

Thanks alot. Solved it already. Here is what i used, any comments on it?
FileStream fs = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open);
BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(fs);
int length = (int)fs.Length;

br.BaseStream.Position = 0x0000E48E;
byte[] input = br.ReadBytes(length - 1);
int pos1 = 0;
int pos2 = 0;
string sPattern = "08010F";


string converted = BitConverter.ToString(input).Replace("-", null);
while (converted.Contains(sPattern))
{
int FirstChr = converted.IndexOf(sPattern);
MessageBox.Show((FirstChr + 6).ToString());
//SHOWS START POSITION OF STRING
lstPlayers.Items.Add(converted.Substring(pos1, FirstChr + 6));
converted = converted.Remove(0, FirstChr + 6);
}