String

• Using "String" as the format specification, Import and Export can represent any file as a sequence of ordinary or special characters.

IMPORT AND EXPORT

• Import["file", "String"] imports a file as a raw string, representing each byte of the file as the character corresponding to FromCharacterCode[byte].

• Export["file", str, "String"] exports a Mathematica string of characters to a binary file. Characters with an encoding greater than 255 are converted to their ASCII representation before exporting.

• The format "String" must be explicitly specified.

• ExportString[expr, "format"]and Import[Export["tmp", expr, "format"], "String"] return the same expression.

• Import["file", "String"] reads any binary file, representing its raw content as a Mathematica string object.

• Export["file", str, "String"] exports a Mathematica string to a file.

• No character encoding transformations are performed when importing or exporting as "String".

• Export["file", expr, "String"] exports a textual representation of expr.

• See the reference pages for full general information on Import and Export.

• ImportString and ExportString support the "String" format.

SEE ALSO

• "Binary"  "Text"

MORE ABOUT

• Basic Formats

• Importing & Exporting

• Listing of All Formats

EXAMPLES

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Basic Examples

Read an arbitrary binary file and return it as a raw Mathematica string:

Show the first bytes of the result, which contains unprintable characters:

Convert the string which represents the file "ocelot.jpg" to graphics:

Read an arbitrary binary file and return it as a raw Mathematica string: In[1]:= Show the first bytes of the result, which contains unprintable characters: In[2]:= Out[2]= Convert the string which represents the file "ocelot.jpg" to graphics: In[3]:= Out[3]=