Binary Translator

How does the binary translator work?

The tool maps each character to its ASCII number, then writes that number in base 2, padded to 8 digits.

How does ASCII map letters to binary?

Every character on a standard keyboard has an ASCII code: a number from 0 to 127, defined by the ASCII (ANSI X3.4) standard and preserved unchanged as the first 128 code points of Unicode / UTF-8. Binary writes that number in base 2 and pads it to 8 bits.

Where is binary code used?

Binary is the native language of digital computing: every file on a drive and every packet crossing a network is ultimately a stream of 0s and 1s. Programmers use it directly when working with permission flags and bitwise operators, computer science students meet it early, and it turns up whenever someone wants text that looks like noise to anyone not holding the decoder. 04 / Which direction

Which way should you be converting?

Not everyone lands here for the same reason, and the tool works in both directions, so it helps to know which box you actually need. A computer science student checking homework usually has plaintext and wants to confirm the binary a professor already gave them: type the word into text_in and compare.