Reading binary from a file and converting to CHAR

[John Gable]

Hi,

I'm trying to read binary from a text file into java - I want to read 8 bits and then convert that to a CHAR.

This is my code:

while (data != -1)         // read until no more to be read
                {  
                strFinal = "";     
                for(int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
                {
                    strFinal += (char)data;    // concatenate data 
                    data = r.read();       // read some more
                }
                
                  System.out.println("value of answer b4 parsing: " + answer); 
                    answer = Integer.parseInt(strFinal, 2);
                    //decrypt
answer = A.decrypt( answer);
    
      System.out.println("value of answer: " + answer);  
                  SDES.printb( answer, 8, 0);
    }
    

The problem I have is it's reading in as a number.
This is my output:

going to decrypt
value of answer b4 parsing: 0
value of answer: 17
inside decrypt for printb
this is the output: ◄
value of answer b4 parsing: 17
value of answer: 14
inside decrypt for printb
this is the output: ♫

basically I want value of answer b4 parsing to be : 00001111 (as a string)
value of answer: 00001111 (but as a int not a string)
because i pipe that into a decryption algoritm that takes the 8 bits and decrypts then i can convert back to char.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Keith Lynn]

I don't see where answer is defined.

[John Gable]

Answer is defined at the beginning of the method.

int answer = 0;