Convert float to its binary representation (using MemoryStream?)

c# binary memorystream floating-point-conversion
Cubi73 picture Cubi73 · Jan 20, 2014 · Viewed 12k times · Source

I'd like to convert a given float into its binary representation. I tried to write the float value into a MemoryStream, read this MemoryStream byte by byte and convert the bytes into their binary representation. But every attempt failed.

  • "Can't read closed stream" (but I only closed the writer)
  • For test purposes I simply wrote an integer (I think four bytes in size) and the length of the MemoryStream was 0, when I didn't flush the StreamWriter, and 1, when I did.

I'm sure there is a better way to convert floats to binary, but I also wanted to learn a little bit about the MemoryStream class.

Answer

Jon Skeet picture Jon Skeet · Jan 20, 2014

You can use BitConverter.GetBytes(float) or use a BinaryWriter wrapping a MemoryStream and use BinaryWriter.Write(float). It's not clear exactly what you did with a MemoryStream before, but you don't want to use StreamWriter - that's for text.

Related questions

C# binary literals

Is there a way to write binary literals in C#, like prefixing hexadecimal with 0x? 0b doesn't work. If not, what is an easy way to do it? Some kind of string conversion?

Read More
Save and retrieve image (binary) from SQL Server using Entity Framework 6

I am trying to save a bitmap image to database Bitmap map = new Bitmap(pictureBoxMetroMap.Size.Width, pictureBoxMetroMap.Size.Height); I created a column imgcontent in the database with datatype binary but my problem is how can I convert this …

Read More
Convert from BitArray to Byte

I have a BitArray with the length of 8, and I need a function to convert it to a byte. How to do it? Specifically, I need a correct function of ConvertToByte: BitArray bit = new BitArray(new bool[] { false, false, false, …

Read More