Binary Files
Functions like
Read and
Write handle ordinary printable text. But in dealing with external data files or devices it is sometimes necessary to go to a lower level, and work directly with raw binary data. You can do this using
BinaryRead and
BinaryWrite.
| BinaryRead[stream] | read one byte |
| BinaryRead[stream,type] | read an object of the specified type |
| BinaryRead[stream,{type1,type2,...}] | read a list of objects |
| BinaryWrite[stream,b] | write one byte |
| BinaryWrite[stream,{b1,b2,...}] | write a sequence of bytes |
| BinaryWrite[stream,"string"] | write the characters in a string |
| BinaryWrite[stream,x,type] | write an object of the specified type |
| BinaryWrite[stream,{x1,x2,...},type] | write a sequence of objects |
| BinaryWrite[stream,{x1,x2,...},{type1,type2,...}] |
| write objects of different types |
Reading and writing binary data.
| "Byte" | 8-bit unsigned integer |
| "Character8" | 8-bit character |
| "Character16" | 16-bit character |
| "Complex64" | IEEE single-precision complex number |
| "Complex128" | IEEE double-precision complex number |
| "Complex256" | IEEE quad-precision complex number |
| "Integer8" | 8-bit signed integer |
| "Integer16" | 16-bit signed integer |
| "Integer32" | 32-bit signed integer |
| "Integer64" | 64-bit signed integer |
| "Integer128" | 128-bit signed integer |
| "Real32" | IEEE single-precision real number |
| "Real64" | IEEE double-precision real number |
| "Real128" | IEEE quad-precision real number |
| "TerminatedString" | null-terminated string of 8-bit characters |
| "UnsignedInteger8" | 8-bit unsigned integer |
| "UnsignedInteger16" | 16-bit unsigned integer |
| "UnsignedInteger32" | 32-bit unsigned integer |
| "UnsignedInteger64" | 64-bit unsigned integer |
| "UnsignedInteger128" | 128-bit unsigned integer |
Types supported in BinaryRead and BinaryWrite.
This writes a sequence of bytes to a file.
| Out[1]= |  |
BinaryWrite automatically opens a stream for the file. This closes it.
This reads the first byte from the file, returning it as an integer.
| Out[3]= |  |
This reads the second 8 bits in the file as a character.
| Out[4]= |  |
This reads the next 32 bits as a 32-bit integer.
| Out[5]= |  |
Like
Read and
Write,
BinaryRead and
BinaryWrite work with streams. But if you give a file name, they automatically open the specified file as a stream. To create a stream directly you can use
OpenRead or
OpenWrite. On some computer systems, the option setting
BinaryFormat->True is required for any stream to be used with
BinaryRead and
BinaryWrite, in order to prevent possible corruption from such issues as newline translation.
In using
Mathematica you are normally completely insulated from the raw representation of data inside your computer. But with
BinaryRead and
BinaryWrite this is no longer so. One of the subtleties that then arises is that different computers may take the bytes that make up numbers to be in different orders, as specified by their setting for
$ByteOrdering.
This writes a 32-bit integer to a file.
| Out[6]= |  |
This reads the integer back, but assumes an opposite byte ordering.
| Out[8]= |  |
| BinaryReadList["file"] | read all the bytes in a file |
| BinaryReadList["file",type] | read all the data, treating it as objects of a certain type |
| BinaryReadList["file",{type1,type2,...}] | treat the data as objects of a sequence of types |
| BinaryReadList["file",types,n] | read only the first n objects |
Reading complete binary files.
This writes out a 128-bit real number.
| Out[9]= |  |
This reads back the bytes in the number.
| Out[10]= |  |
This reads back the bytes as a sequence of 32-bit real numbers.
| Out[11]= |  |
This treats the data as pairs containing a byte and a 32-bit real.
| Out[12]= |  |
BinaryRead and
BinaryWrite allow complete flexibility in reading and writing raw binary data. But in many practical applications one instead wants to work only with particular predefined formats. You can do this using
Import and
Export.
In addition to many complex formats,
Import and
Export support files containing sequences of identical data elements, of the same types as in
BinaryRead and
BinaryWrite. They also support the
format, consisting of individual binary bits, represented as
or
.
