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Character8

  • Import can read any file as a sequence of characters.
  • Export writes a list of characters to a file.

Background & Context

    • Sequence of 8-bit characters.
    • Raw binary format.

Import & Export

  • Import["file","Character8"] imports any file, returning a list of 8-bit characters.
  • Export["file",list,"Character8"] exports a list of characters to a binary file.
  • Export["file",expr,"Character8"] converts an expression to a string of characters and exports it to a binary file in which each byte represents a character.
  • Import["file",{"Character8",elem}] or Import["file",elem ] imports the specified element.
  • Import["file",{"Character8",{elem1,elem2,…}}] imports multiple elements.
  • See the following reference pages for full general information:
  • Import, Exportimport from or export to a file
    CloudImport, CloudExportimport from or export to a cloud object
    ImportString, ExportStringimport from or export to a string
    ImportByteArray, ExportByteArrayimport from or export to a byte array

Import Elements

  • General Import elements:
  • "Elements" list of elements and options available in this file
    "Summary"summary of the file
    "Rules"list of rules for all available elements
  • Data representation element:
  • "Data"list of 8-bit characters
  • By default, Import and Export use the "Data" element.
  • Import["file",{"Character8",n}] gives the n^(th) byte.

Options

  • Import option:
  • "HeaderBytes"0how many bytes to skip at the beginning of the file

Examples

Basic Examples  (2)

Convert a list of characters to a string representing an 8-bit character array:

The Wolfram Language can also convert expressions of multicharacter strings to 8-bit characters:

Convert the previous result back to an expression:

Multibyte characters cannot be exported to the Character8 format: