int to char

[Naresh Rajan]

In a program I have written, I read a photo file in InputStream. I convert the int I get in the Inputstream to Hexadecimal values using Integer.toHexString().

Later I am converting the hexadecimal values to int and then I am trying to regenerate into char. Some values do not get regenerated to the original char. I tried typecasting to char. i also tried to use Character.fromDigit(digit,radix).I am not able to understand what the radix means. It always returns a '.'
I need to know what this radix means and how do I use them

Please help in this regard

[Jesper de Jong]

I don't understand the whole problem, but the radix is the base of the number system. For example, for decimal, radix = 10, for hexadecimal, radix = 16.

[Jeff Albertson]

It is totally unclear to me what you are trying to do. Why not give an example with a few numbers/bytes/characters/etc? I don't see how a "photo file" can contain "chars".

[Naresh Rajan]

if u try to open a photo file using textpad or any editor you will be able to see junk characters. these characters when read using a file input stream it gives u the Ascii value of each character. each ascii value is then converted into its corresponding hex code. this hex code is then later reused to regenerate the photo.

The problem here is when i try to type cast some ascii values to char
for eg.
(char)145 returns ?
(char)129 also returns ?

but it is supposed to return a different character. it happens to many other values as well.

I hope I have been clear enough.

FYI: this logic has been forced on me

[Jesper de Jong]

Files that store photos (for example, JPEG or TIFF files) are binary files. They do not contain ASCII characters. If you open such a file with a text editor, the text editor doesn't know what to do with the binary data and shows bytes that it can't convert to characters as "?".

Why do you want to open those files with a text editor? It's still not very clear what you're trying to accomplish. Can you explain it step by step?

[Ajay A Patil]

Naresh,

> (char)145 returns ?
> (char)129 also returns ?

Try running the following code.

public class Test {
  public static void main(String [] args) {
    char c1 = (char) 145;
    char c2 = (char) 129;
    System.out.println(c1);
    System.out.println(c2);
  }
}

The output will be:

?
?

Actually, the ascii character 145 and 129 are displayed
as '?' in the console.

This is only a display issue and perhaps you shouldnt worry about it.
Reading your mail, I think you should have no issue in converting
it into the hexadecimal string and generating your image.

Cheers,
Ajay

[Vlado Zajac]

char in Java is 2-byte (Unicode). For binary files (such as most photos formats) you need 1-byte values, so the need to convert it to byte, not char.

(And don't use any Readers or Writers for binary files.)

Converting int to byte can be done using typecasting (in this case).

EDIT: To output the bytes correctly use OutputStream's write(int) method, PrintStream's print(char) may convert it incorrectly. You don't need to convert that int to anything since write method already accepts int.
EDIT: I tried it with

System.out.write(140)

and it works.

System.out.print((char)140)

prints only ?.

[ April 21, 2006: Message edited by: Vlado Zajac ]

[ April 21, 2006: Message edited by: Vlado Zajac ]
[ April 21, 2006: Message edited by: Vlado Zajac ]

[Naresh Rajan]

Thanx it worked