Convert from BitArray to Byte

Question

I have a BitArray with the length of 8, and I need a function to convert it to a byte. How to do it?

Specifically, I need a correct function of ConvertToByte:

BitArray bit = new BitArray(new bool[]
{
    false, false, false, false,
    false, false, false, true
});

//How to write ConvertToByte
byte myByte = ConvertToByte(bit);
var recoveredBit = new BitArray(new[] { myByte });
Assert.AreEqual(bit, recoveredBit);

Answer 1

Little endian byte array converter : First bit (indexed with "0") in the BitArray assumed to represents least significant bit (rightmost bit in the bit-octet) which interpreted as "zero" or "one" as binary.

 public static class BitArrayExtender {

    public static byte[] ToByteArray( this BitArray bits ) {

        const int BYTE = 8;
        int length = ( bits.Count / BYTE ) + ( (bits.Count % BYTE == 0) ? 0 : 1 );
        var bytes  = new byte[ length ];

        for ( int i = 0; i < bits.Length; i++ ) {

           int bitIndex  = i % BYTE;
           int byteIndex = i / BYTE;

           int mask = (bits[ i ] ? 1 : 0) << bitIndex;
           bytes[ byteIndex ] |= (byte)mask;

        }//for

        return bytes;

    }//ToByteArray

 }//class

Answer 2

In addition to @JonSkeet answer you can use Generic Method as blow:

public static byte ToByte(this BitArray bits)
        {
            if (bits.Count != 8)
            {
                throw new ArgumentException("bits");
            }
            byte[] bytes = new byte[1];
            bits.CopyTo(bytes, 0);
            return bytes[0];
        }

And use like:

BitArray foo = new BitArray(new bool[]
{
    false, false, false, false,false, false, false, true
});

foo.ToByte();

Answer 3

Unfortunately, the BitArray class is partially implemented in .Net Core class (UWP). For example BitArray class is unable to call the CopyTo() and Count() methods. I wrote this extension to fill the gap:

public static IEnumerable<Byte> ToBytes(this BitArray bits, bool MSB = false)
    {
        int bitCount = 7;
        int outByte = 0;

        foreach (bool bitValue in bits)
        {
            if (bitValue)
                outByte |= MSB ? 1 << bitCount : 1 << (7 - bitCount);
            if (bitCount == 0)
            {
                yield return (byte) outByte;
                bitCount = 8;
                outByte = 0;
            }
            bitCount--;
        }
        // Last partially decoded byte
        if (bitCount < 7)
            yield return (byte) outByte;
    }
}

The method decodes the BitArray to a byte array using LSB (Less Significant Byte) logic. This is the same logic used by the BitArray class. Calling the method with the MSB parameter set on true will produce a MSB decoded byte sequence. In this case, remember that you maybe also need to reverse the final output byte collection.

Answer 4

byte GetByte(BitArray input)
{
  int len = input.Length;
  if (len > 8)
    len = 8;
  int output = 0;
  for (int i = 0; i < len; i++)
    if (input.Get(i))
      output += (1 << (len - 1 - i)); //this part depends on your system (Big/Little)
      //output += (1 << i); //depends on system
  return (byte)output;
}

Cheers!

Answer 5

A poor man's solution:

protected byte ConvertToByte(BitArray bits)
{
    if (bits.Count != 8)
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("illegal number of bits");
    }

    byte b = 0;
    if (bits.Get(7)) b++;
    if (bits.Get(6)) b += 2;
    if (bits.Get(5)) b += 4;
    if (bits.Get(4)) b += 8;
    if (bits.Get(3)) b += 16;
    if (bits.Get(2)) b += 32;
    if (bits.Get(1)) b += 64;
    if (bits.Get(0)) b += 128;
    return b;
}

Answer 6

This should work:

byte ConvertToByte(BitArray bits)
{
    if (bits.Count != 8)
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("bits");
    }
    byte[] bytes = new byte[1];
    bits.CopyTo(bytes, 0);
    return bytes[0];
}