Text to Binary/Hex

Convert text to binary, hexadecimal, octal, or decimal. Encode and decode text in multiple number systems.

What It Does

Text to Binary Converter transforms text into binary (base-2) representation and vice versa. Binary uses only 0 and 1 digits, representing each character as a sequence of bits (binary digits). This tool converts ASCII and Unicode text characters to their binary equivalents, where each character is represented by 8 bits (1 byte) for ASCII or multiple bytes for Unicode. It also supports conversion to hexadecimal (hex) and other number bases. The converter handles bidirectional conversion: text to binary (encoding text as binary sequences) and binary to text (decoding binary sequences back to readable text). It displays binary with proper spacing for readability, shows hexadecimal representation, handles Unicode characters, and provides educational value for understanding how computers store and process text. Essential for computer science education, low-level programming, data encoding, understanding character encoding, and learning how text is represented in computer memory.

Key Features:

  • Text to binary: Convert ASCII and Unicode text to binary representation
  • Binary to text: Decode binary sequences back to readable text
  • Hexadecimal conversion: Show hex representation alongside binary
  • ASCII support: Convert standard ASCII characters (0-127)
  • Unicode support: Handle international characters and emoji
  • Byte grouping: Display binary with spacing for readability
  • Real-time conversion: Instant results as you type
  • Educational display: Show character codes and byte representations

How To Use

Enter text to convert to binary, or paste binary to decode to text. Perfect for learning binary systems and understanding text encoding.

1

Enter Text or Binary

For text to binary: Type or paste any text (letters, numbers, symbols, emoji) into the input field. For binary to text: Paste a binary sequence (series of 0s and 1s) with or without spaces.

2

Select Conversion Direction

Choose "Text to Binary" to encode text as binary, or "Binary to Text" to decode binary back to text. You can also select additional formats like hexadecimal for comprehensive conversion.

3

View Results

The converted output appears instantly. Text to binary shows each character as 8 bits (for ASCII) or multiple bytes (for Unicode). Binary to text decodes the binary sequence and displays the original text. Hexadecimal representation is also shown for reference.

4

Copy Result

Copy the binary, hexadecimal, or decoded text result for use in your code, documentation, or educational materials.

Pro Tips

  • •ASCII characters use 8 bits (1 byte) each
  • •Unicode characters may use 2-4 bytes depending on the character
  • •Binary is read from left to right, most significant bit first
  • •Hexadecimal is more compact than binary (2 hex digits = 1 byte)
  • •Spaces in binary input are ignored during decoding
  • •Each character's binary represents its character code (ASCII/Unicode value)

Benefits

Education: Learn how computers represent text in binary
Programming: Understand character encoding and byte representation
Debugging: Inspect how text is stored in memory or files
Data Encoding: Convert text for binary protocols or file formats
Computer Science: Fundamental understanding of digital representation
Low-Level Programming: Work with binary data and bit manipulation
Character Encoding: Understand ASCII, UTF-8, and Unicode

Use Cases

Computer Science Education

Learn how text is represented in computers. Example: The letter "A" has ASCII code 65, which in binary is 01000001. Students can see how each character maps to binary, understanding fundamental computer science concepts. Essential for CS courses covering data representation, character encoding, and binary systems.

Text: "Hello" → Binary: 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111

Character Encoding Understanding

Understand ASCII and Unicode character codes. Example: Convert characters to see their numeric codes in binary and hex. "A" = 65 decimal = 01000001 binary = 41 hex. Helps understand how character encodings work and why certain characters have specific binary representations.

Character: "A" → ASCII: 65 → Binary: 01000001 → Hex: 41

Binary Data Inspection

Inspect how text is stored in binary format. Example: When debugging file formats or network protocols, convert text to binary to see exact byte representation. Useful for understanding file headers, protocol messages, and binary file structures.

Text: "PNG" → Binary: 01010000 01001110 01000111 (PNG file signature)

Bit Manipulation Learning

Learn bitwise operations and binary arithmetic. Example: Convert numbers and text to binary to understand how bitwise AND, OR, XOR operations work. Essential for low-level programming, embedded systems, and understanding computer internals.

Understanding how bitwise operations work on binary representations

Frequently Asked Questions

1 How many bits does each character use?
ASCII characters (standard English letters, numbers, basic symbols) use 8 bits (1 byte) each. For example, "A" = 01000001 (8 bits). Unicode characters vary: Basic Latin and most common characters use 1-3 bytes in UTF-8 encoding. For example, "é" uses 2 bytes (11000011 10101001), Chinese characters use 3 bytes, and emoji may use 4 bytes. The exact number depends on the character and encoding (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32). Our tool typically uses UTF-8 encoding, which is variable-length and efficient for most text.
2 What's the difference between binary and hexadecimal?
Binary uses base-2 (only 0 and 1), hexadecimal uses base-16 (0-9 and A-F). One hex digit represents 4 bits (a "nibble"), so 2 hex digits = 1 byte (8 bits). For example: Binary 01000001 = Hex 41 = Decimal 65 = Character "A". Hexadecimal is more compact and readable than binary while still being easy to convert to binary. Programmers often use hex for memory addresses, colors, and binary data because it's more concise than binary but still represents bytes directly.
3 Can I convert Unicode characters and emoji?
Yes, the tool supports Unicode characters including international characters, symbols, and emoji. Unicode characters are encoded using UTF-8, which uses 1-4 bytes per character depending on the character. For example, "é" uses 2 bytes, "中" (Chinese) uses 3 bytes, and "😀" (emoji) uses 4 bytes. The binary representation shows all bytes needed to represent the character. When converting binary back to text, the tool correctly decodes UTF-8 sequences to display the original characters.
4 Why would I need to convert text to binary?
Common reasons: Education—learning how computers store text, Debugging—inspecting how text is represented in memory or files, Low-level programming—working with binary protocols or file formats, Data encoding—converting text for binary transmission, Understanding encoding—seeing how ASCII/Unicode maps to bytes, Bit manipulation—working with individual bits of text data. While most high-level programming doesn't require binary conversion, understanding binary representation is fundamental to computer science and helpful for debugging encoding issues.
5 How do I read binary output?
Binary is read from left to right, with each group of 8 bits representing one byte (one ASCII character). For example, 01001000 represents the letter "H" (ASCII 72). Groups are often spaced for readability: 01001000 01100101 = "He". To understand a binary sequence: Group into 8-bit chunks, convert each chunk to decimal (or use a reference), match decimal to ASCII/Unicode character code. Our tool does this automatically, but understanding the process helps with learning and debugging. The leftmost bit is the most significant bit (MSB), representing the highest value (128 for 8-bit).

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