faster way to convert byte array into binary in vb?

Question

I want to convert my bytearray into binary like this ex: "01010101" . With small file, it can convert without any issues, but it's taking too long to convert a large file (even for just 5mb , i cant imagine for any larger than that ). is there any faster way to convert this bytearray into binary and vice versa ? here's my code

Public Function conv_FileToByte(ByVal filename As String)

    Dim convFileToByte_array() As Byte
    Dim fs As New FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
    Dim fileData As Byte() = New Byte(fs.Length - 1) {}

    Console.WriteLine("reading file data")
    fs.Read(fileData, 0, Convert.ToInt32(fs.Length))
    fs.Close()
    Console.WriteLine("close stream")


    convFileToByte_array = fileData

    Console.WriteLine("Returning value")

    Return convFileToByte_array

End Function


Public Function conv_ByteToBin(ByVal conv() As Byte)

    'Dim newBin As New List(Of String)
    Dim newBin As String = Nothing
    For Each c In conv
        'newBin.Add(Convert.ToString(c, 2).PadLeft(8, "0"))
        Dim temp_bin As String
        temp_bin = Convert.ToString(c, 2).PadLeft(8, "0")
        newBin = newBin & temp_bin
    Next
    Console.WriteLine("Returning value")

    Return newBin
End Function


Public Function conv_BinToByte(ByVal binValue As String)


    Dim count_binValue As String = binValue.Count

    Dim temp_binValue As New List(Of String)


    Dim bins As New Byte()
    Dim binlist As New List(Of Byte)

    For i As Integer = 0 To count_binValue - 1 Step 8


        Dim temp_value As String
        temp_value = binValue.Substring(i, 8)


        Dim convert_temp As String

        convert_temp = Convert.ToInt32(temp_value, 2)

        temp_binValue.Add(convert_temp)
    Next

    For Each bl In temp_binValue
        binlist.Add(bl)
    Next


    Dim binData As Byte() = New Byte(binlist.Count - 1) {}
    For bd As Integer = 0 To binlist.Count - 1
        binData(bd) = binlist(bd)
    Next

    Return binData

End Function

Esko · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-27 09:22:57Z

3

You are concatenating very large string in conv_ByteToBin-method. In such cases it's very bad practice to use basic string concatenating and it seems that this is your bottleneck here. I simply changed that method to use StringBuilder as it's an efficient way to concatenate large strings and the code run much, much faster:

Public Function conv_ByteToBin(ByVal conv() As Byte) As String
    Dim newBin As New StringBuilder

    For Each c In conv
        newBin.Append(Convert.ToString(c, 2).PadLeft(8, "0"))
    Next
    Console.WriteLine("Returning value")

    Return newBin.ToString
End Function

Best practices tips:

Always use return type in your methods
FileStream implements iDisposable - always use using block with objects that implement iDisposable

Also your method conv_FileToByte is irrelevant since .net already has built in File.ReadAllBytes-method that does the same thing. Just call that and remove your own implementation.

answered Jun 27, 2017 at 9:22

Esko

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1 Comment

totallynewbie Over a year ago

thank you, this solved my problem ! I didn't know it was this simple.

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