Binary Translator Text to binary and binary to text

Two digits, many meanings

Binary is a base-two way to represent values using 0 and 1. Each digit is a bit. A sequence can represent a number, text, an image or instructions, depending on how it is interpreted. Binary alone does not tell you which kind of data it holds.

Computers use binary because electronic circuits can represent two distinguishable states. The symbols 0 and 1 describe those states; they do not mean the computer stores printed digits.

Text needs an encoding

This translator uses UTF-8, the encoding defined in the WHATWG Encoding Standard. Plain English letters each fit in one byte. Other characters may need several bytes, so one character is not always one group.

To write your name in binary, enter it in the text box and choose Text to binary. Keep every byte and its leading zeros when you copy the result. The reverse direction needs the same encoding.

For text, read bytes

Separate the stream into groups of eight bits, then decode the bytes as UTF-8. The translator accepts spaces or line breaks between groups, as well as one continuous stream. It reports incomplete bytes and invalid UTF-8 instead of displaying replacement characters as if the result were valid.

For numbers, read place values

The rightmost binary digit has a value of one. Each place to its left doubles in value. Add the place values wherever a digit is 1 and skip the places marked 0. The number converter treats the input as a whole number rather than text bytes.