File I/O Binary Question...

im here again to influence you with another problem :rolleyes:

im having problems im making a game mod and im havin troubles tryin to decode the file it looks as if o be in a binary format how do i extract it and output it into a normal text file.

i learnt this on another tutorial site but i always like to come here :)

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

char ch;

ifstream source_file ( "C:\AGP.u", ios::binary ); //open that dreadful file

ofstream output_file ( "C:\opened.txt" ); /* file to put the un-encoded version */

if (! source_file.is_open()) {
cout << "File Failed to Open, Press Enter" << endl;
cin.get();
return -1;
}
else
{
while ( source_file.get(ch) ) {
output_file.put(ch);
}
cout << "file should be outputted" << endl;
}
system("PAUSE");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

---

not working and i have no clue how to change it back into Binary please help

With that code you are taking 1 byte out of AGP.u, converting it into binary (0s and 1s) (I believe) and then putting that stream into opened.txt, 1 byte at a time. That would leave you with AGP.u unchanged, and opened.txt (possibly in the wrong format) as a copy of AGP.u.

I'm assuming this isnt a mod for your own game.

If you can create a mod for a game it usually comes with some SDK, like an application. You dont use like just open it in binary so you can run it, or add C++ code to it when you I/O with it. That mod file should be like an output of whatever the application of the game comes out with in a strange and unique format (using that games functions and such). It wont come out in code in anyway, because you cant tell where binary starts a space, a letter, or anything, because its all just 0's and 1's. Then theres hex-editing which is a long process to learn, specifically reverse engineering (like learning 3 different programming languages), and you're basicly 'cracking' the file, turning it into assembly language, which you can barely figure out how to turn into C++, and that would give you a very spagetti version of the code used in that mod.. which you could recompile if you were very good. Anyway, this all just a bunch of ramble...

There should be an application to edit/create mods.

I'm not entirely sure that'll work, but if it did, your code isn't working because you're not reading from it like it's a binary file:

Code:

---

#include<fstream>

int main()
{
        char ch;

        std::fstream in("test.in",std::ios::binary|std::ios::in);
        std::fstream out("test.out",std::ios::out|std::ios::trunc);

        while(in.read(reinterpret_cast<char*>(&ch),sizeof(ch)))
        {
                out<<ch;
        }

        in.close();
        out.close();
        return 0;
}

---

like I said, that probably wont' do what you expect - it reads a character's worth of bytes from the file, and outputs it as a character into test.out.

umm i dont understand all of that but one thing is how the heck fstream isnt ia type i think it has to be ofstream and ifstream i dont have access to my compiler at the minute so....

fstream is a combination of ifstream and ofstream: http://www.cppreference.com/cppio/all.html

it's useful if you want to use the same stream for input and output.

btw, just for reference: I compile most of the code I post on the forums with -Wall before it's posted - I try to not post misinformation.

ok and why may i ask you use std::? instead of using namespace std; is there an advantage?

yeah - it's like the difference between taking a few marbles out of a bag and tearing the bag open and letting them fall all over the floor.

I suppose it really doesn't matter in the end, but without doing it my way, you could never do cool things like this:

Code:

---

#include<iostream>

namespace data
{
        int cout;
}

int main()
{
        data::cout=5;
        std::cout<<data::cout<<std::endl;
        return 0;
}

---

Code:

---

#include<iostream>

using namespace std;

int cout;

int main()
{
    ::cout=5;

    // std:: required to distinguish between global cout even with "using namespace std" statement
    // std:: not needed with endl however
    std::cout << ::cout << endl;

    return 0;
}

---

What exactly is a binary file in Windows? I know POSIX systems don't distinguish between a binary file and a text file.

a text file is (kinda) human-readable. a binary file is meant to be read by a program.

All files are really binary, the only real difference between the two is in the interpretation of the newline character (I think). When writing a single newline character ('\n') in text mode you actually end up writing two characters, a carriage-return/linefeed combo. Likewise when reading from a file in text mode, reading in the particular 2 character carriage-return/linefeed combo gets converted into a single newline character ('\n'). Writing/reading in binary mode disables this conversion so that what you write is exactly what you wrote (byte-for-byte) and what you read is exactly what is in the file (byte-for-byte).

it's more than that... for example, run this code and look at the two files:

Code:

---

#include<fstream>
#include<iostream>
#include<ctime>

int main()
{
        int i=time(0);
        std::fstream text("test.in",std::ios::out|std::ios::trunc);
        std::fstream bin("test.out",std::ios::binary|std::ios::out|std::ios::trunc);

        text<<i;
        bin.write(reinterpret_cast<char*>(&i),sizeof(int));

        text.close();
        text.clear();
        bin.close();
        bin.clear();

        text.open("test.in",std::ios::in);
        bin.open("test.out",std::ios::binary|std::ios::in);

        i=0;
        text>>i;
        std::cout<<"Text: "<<i;
        i=0;
        bin.read(reinterpret_cast<char*>(&i),sizeof(int));
        std::cout<<"\nBinary: "<<i<<std::endl;

        text.close();
        bin.close();

        return 0;
}

---

in case you don't want to try it, here are the two files:

test.in (text)

Code:

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1121089981

---

test.out (binary)

Code:

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½yÒB

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