Can anyone distinguish the difference between binary file and.exe file? Using streams for file processing is certainly possible in C++ and requires that you have an understanding in C++ and data structures at minimum which i will assume. Binary files contain '0's and '1's to describe all characters and data. All files, including text files, are converted to binary format when stored on a hard drive.

Various people have answered some aspects of the query, but not all. All files on computers are stored as 1's and 0's. Images, text files, music, executable applications, object files, etc. They are all 0's and 1's.

The only difference is that they are interpreted differently depending upon what opens them. When you view a text file using cat, the executable ( cat in this case) reads all the 1's and 0's and it presents them to you by converting them into characters from your relevant alphabet or language. When you view a file using an image viewer, it takes all the 1's and 0's and turns them into an image, depending on the format of the file and some logic to work it all out. Compiled binary files are no different, they are stored as 1's and 0's. Arzyfex's answer gives you the tools to view those files in different ways, but reading a file as binary works for any file on a computer, as does viewing it as octal, or hex, or indeed ASCII, it just might not make sense in each of those formats. If you want to understand what an executable binary file does, you need to view it in a way which shows you the assembler language (as a start), which you can do using, objdump -d /path/to/binary which is a disassembler, it takes the binary content and converts it back into assembler (which is a very low level programming language).

Objdump is not always installed by default, so may need to be installed depending on your Linux environment. Some external reading. • • NB: as @Wildcard points out, it's important to note the files don't contain the characters 1 and 0 (as you see them on the screen), they contain actual numeric data, individual bits of information which are either on (1) or off (0). Even that description is only an approximation of the truth.

They key point is that if you do find a viewer which shows you the 1's and 0's, even that is still interpreting the data from the file and then showing you the ASCII characters for 0 and 1. The data is stored in a binary format (see the Binary number link above). Covers this in more detail. I would quibble (i.e., disagree) with your statement, 'When you view a text file using cat, the executable ( cat in this case) reads all the 1's and 0's and it presents them to you by converting them into characters from your relevant alphabet or language.' Cat doesn't do that; all cat does is write bytes to the standard output (unless you're using the options).

The terminal program (and/or the terminal hardware, if applicable, i. Armada, By Ernest Cline. e., its firmware) determines how to render bytes as characters, possibly with an assist from the TTY driver. – May 19 '16 at 8:35 •. At low level, a file is encoded as a sequence of 0's and 1's. But even programmers rarely go there in practice. First (and more important than this story of 0's and 1's), you have to understand that anything that the computer manipulates is encoded with numbers.

• A character is coded with a number, using character set tables. For example, the letter 'A' has a value of 65 when coded using ASCII. See • A pixel is coded with one or more numbers (There are a lot of graphical formats) For example, in standard 3-colors format, a yellow pixel is encoded as: 255 for Red, 255 for Green, 0 for Blue. See (choose a color and see the R,G & B cells) • A binary-executable file is written in Assembly; each assembly instruction is coded as numbers.

For example, the assembly instruction MOVB $0x61,%al is codedby two numbers: 176,97 See (Each instruction has an associated number from 00 to FF, because the hexadecimal notation is used, see below) Secondly: each number can have multiple representations or notations. Say I have 23 apples. Glassfish Server Adapter For Eclipse. • If I make groups of ten apples, I will get: 2 tenths, and 3 alone apples. That's exactly what we mean when we write 23: a 2 (tenths), then a 3 (units). • But I can also make groups of 16 apples. So I'll get one Group-of-16, and 7 alone apples.

Love Smart Dr Phil Mcgraw Free Download more. In hexadecimal notation (that's how called the 16 radix), I'll write: 17. To distinguish from decimal notation, hexadecimal notation is generally noted with a prefix or a suffix: 17h, #17 or $17. But how to represent more than 9 Group-of-16, or more of 9 alone-apples?

Simply, we use letters from A (10) to F (15). The number 31 (as in 34 apples) is written as #1F in hexadecimal. • On the same principle, we can do only group-of-two-apples. (And group of two group-of-two apples, i.e group-of-2x2-apples, and so on).