Thread: Writing to "binary" files

Hey,

Just a question on the code i've posted below.

It writes to the file out.bin but when i view it (thru notepad or edit or whatever) i can see the word "HELLO".

If this is a "binary" file should i be able to see the characters like that? I thought i mite get the bit equivalents.....

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
	ofstream outFile;

	char file[8] = "out.bin";

	char buffer[10] = "HELLO";

	outFile.open(file, ios::out | ios::binary);

	outFile.write (reinterpret_cast< const char* >(buffer), 5);

	outFile.close();

	return 0;
}

Cheers gang.

Rob.

Binary means that you are writing bytes, nothing more. Indeed, you are writing the bytes, but notepad just make an interpretation of them, making them letters where they wre letters and unreadable else.