Decimal to Binary

Question

I have a number that I would like to convert to binary (from decimal) in C.

I would like my binary to always be in 5 bits (the decimal will never exceed 31). I alrea

Answer 1

Since you're only working with 5 bits, why not use a lookup table? Something like the following:

/* Convert nstr to a number (decimal) and put a string representation of the
 * lowest 5 bits in dest (which must be at least 6 chars long) */
void getBinStr(char *dest, const char *nstr)
{
  char *lkup[32] = { 
    "00000", "00001", "00010", "00011", "00100", "00101", "00110", "00111",
    "01000", "01001", "01010", "01011", "01100", "01101", "01110", "01111",
    "10000", "10001", "10010", "10011", "10100", "10101", "10110", "10111",
    "11000", "11001", "11010", "11011", "11100", "11101", "11110", "11111" };
  strcpy(dest, lkup[atoi(nstr) & 0x1f]);
}

Or a switch:

void getBinStr(char *dest, const char *nstr)
{
  switch (atoi(nstr)) {
    case 31:  strcpy(dest,"11111"); break;
    case 30:  strcpy(dest,"11110"); break;
    ...
    case 1:   strcpy(dest,"00001"); break;
    case 0:   strcpy(dest,"00000"); break;
    default:  strcpy(dest,"error");
  }
}

Or if that seems too long, maybe something like the following:

void getBinStr(char *dest, const char *nstr)
{
  unsigned x = atoi(nstr);
  dest[0] = (x & 0x10) ? '1' : '0';
  dest[1] = (x & 0x08) ? '1' : '0';
  dest[2] = (x & 0x04) ? '1' : '0';
  dest[3] = (x & 0x02) ? '1' : '0';
  dest[4] = (x & 0x01) ? '1' : '0';
  dest[5] = '\0';
}

I would normally favour one of the first two, but the last one might be better if for some reason the others are too big (such as code for small microcontroller).

These all assume you want the result left padded with zeros to 5 bits.

Answer 2

#include "stdio.h"
#include "conio.h"

int main(void)
{
int i, d , n = 1;
int store[10];

printf("Please enter a number to be converted to binary:\n");
scanf("%d",&d);

for (i=0;i<8 ;i++ )
  store[i] = 0;

i = 0;

do{
if(d & n ){
    n <<= 1;  //10
    store[i] = 1;
    i++;
}
else {
    n <<= 1;
    store[i] = 0;
    i++;
}

}while(n <= d);

printf("\n");
for (i=7;i>=0 ;i-- ){
  printf("%d",store[i]);
if(i == 4)
    printf(" ");
}
printf("\n");
return 0;
}

Answer 3

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

char numstr[9024];
int i = 0;

void format(int n, int base);
void printreverse(char *s);

int main()
{
     int testnum = 312;    // some random test number
     format(testnum, 2);   // 2 for binary
     printreverse(numstr);
     putchar('\n');

     return 0;
}

void format(int n, int base)
{
    if (n > 0) {
        char tmp = (n % base) + '0';
        numstr[i++] = tmp;

        // If we put this above other two we don't need printreverse,
        // But then we will have unwanted results in other places of numstr if we can't reset it

        format(n/base, base); 
    } else
        numstr[i] = '\0'; // terminating character
}

void printreverse(char *s)
{
    long len = strlen(s);
    while (len-->0)
        putchar(s[len]);
}

Answer 4

You can always divide and pad it to 5 bits (did this to pad in 8 bits because printing a character like A would be the number 65 )

#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>
void main(){
int binary[8], number, i; //for 5 bits use binary[5]
do{
printf("input a number: ");
scanf("%d",&number);
fflush(stdin);
}while(number>256 || number <0); //for 5 bits... 31 use number>31 || number <0
for (i=0; i<=7; i++)  // for 5 bits use i<=4
    {
    binary[i]=number%2;
    number = number/2;
    }
for (i=7; i >=0; i--)  //for 5 bits use i=4
    printf("%d", binary[i]);
number=0; // its allready 0.
for (i=0; i<=7; i++)  //for 5 bits use i<=4
    {
    number=number+binary[i]*pow(2,i);
    }
printf("\n%c",number);
}

Answer 5

Here's an elegant solution:

void getBin(int num, char *str)
{
  *(str+5) = '\0';
  int mask = 0x10 << 1;
  while(mask >>= 1)
    *str++ = !!(mask & num) + '0';
}

Here, we start by making sure the string ends in a null character. Then, we create a mask with a single one in it (its the mask you would expect, shifted to the left once to account for the shift in the first run of the while conditional). Each time through the loop, the mask is shifted one place to the right, and then the corresponding character is set to either a '1' or a '0' (the !! ensure that we are adding either a 0 or a 1 to '0'). Finally, when the 1 in the mask is shifted out of the number, the while loop ends.

To test it, use the following:

int main()
{
  char str[6];
  getBin(10, str);
  printf("%s\n", str);
  return 0;
}

Answer 6

If you don't need leading zeroes, you can just use itoa(value, outputstring, base)

For example

char s[9];
itoa(10, s, 2);
printf("%s\n", s);

will print out

1010

Else you can just write a very simple function.

void tobin5str(int value, char* output)
{
    int i;
    output[5] = '\0';
    for (i = 4; i >= 0; --i, value >>= 1)
    {
        output[i] = (value & 1) + '0';
    }
}

int main()
{
    char s[6];
    tobin5str(10, s);
    printf("%s\n", s);
    return 0;
}

will print out

01010

A more generic approach can be a function that ask you how much bits to convert.

void tobinstr(int value, int bitsCount, char* output)
{
    int i;
    output[bitsCount] = '\0';
    for (i = bitsCount - 1; i >= 0; --i, value >>= 1)
    {
        output[i] = (value & 1) + '0';
    }
}

Of course bitsCount must be a value from 1 to 32, and the buffer string must be allocated for at least bitsCount + 1 characters.