How to convert a binary character to readable ASCII Integers

w3ntp has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am looking for a way to convert a binary character to an ascii readable integer. For example a "\x00" would be a "0" and a "\x01" would translate to a "1" and so on. If I create an array as follows: @array=("\x00", "\x01", "\x02"); and I write this to a text file, the hex dump looks like the following: "00 78 01 78 02 78". I am not sure where the "\x78" is coming from. I am running perl 5.8.8 on a Solaris 9 platform. Any ideas? I have tried the hex() and tr// functions without any success. I also found that doing math on binary data does not work?? thanks w3ntp

Comment on How to convert a binary character to readable ASCII Integers

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Re: How to convert a binary character to readable ASCII Integers by kyle (Abbot) on Feb 12, 2008 at 20:32 UTC
I think you're looking for ord. That will give you a number, which you can treat as a string if you want to, and Perl will convert it for you. `my @array=("\x00", "\x01", "\x02"); print join q{, }, map { ord } @array; print "\n"; __END__ 0, 1, 2` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How to convert a binary character to readable ASCII Integers by Fletch (Bishop) on Feb 12, 2008 at 20:27 UTC
Not that the original question's all that clear, but it sounds like you're looking for either chr, or possibly an invocation of unpack `"c*"` to turn characters into the corresponding integer values. If that's not it you need to show some actual code and give a better explanation than "doesn't work" (see also How (Not) To Ask A Question). The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie.	[reply]
Re: How to convert a binary character to readable ASCII Integers by apl (Monsignor) on Feb 12, 2008 at 20:42 UTC
78 hex is lower-case 'X'. When you write out "\x" you're asking to explicitly have lower-case 'X' written.	[reply]
Re^2: How to convert a binary character to readable ASCII Integers by Fletch (Bishop) on Feb 12, 2008 at 22:34 UTC
ORLY? `$ perl -MO=Deparse -e 'print "\x"' print "\000";` [download] The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: How to convert a binary character to readable ASCII Integers by apl (Monsignor) on Feb 13, 2008 at 00:23 UTC
I followed the link, and I thank you for it. Nonetheless, 78 hex is lower-case 'X'. They got into the file somehow. (I'd like to see a little more of the code, myself.)	[reply]