Overview
Introduction
Sometimes hex just isn't granular enough — seeing a file's individual bits, not just its hex-pair bytes, makes certain patterns (flag bytes, bit-packed fields, alignment padding) much easier to spot.
This tool renders any uploaded file's raw bytes as full 8-bit binary, laid out in the same familiar row-and-offset format as a classic hexdump.
What Is Binary File Dumper?
A byte-level file viewer that shows every byte of an uploaded file as an 8-character binary string, 16 bytes per row.
It mirrors the row layout of a traditional hexdump exactly, just with binary instead of hexadecimal digits for each byte.
How Binary File Dumper Works
The uploaded file is read into memory with the File API's `arrayBuffer()` method, producing a raw `Uint8Array` of its bytes.
Bytes are processed in chunks of 16: each byte is formatted with `.toString(2).padStart(8, "0")`, the 16 (or fewer, for the final row) binary groups are joined with spaces, and each row is prefixed with its starting offset in hex.
When To Use Binary File Dumper
Use it when debugging a binary file format, protocol capture, or bit-packed data structure where individual bit values matter, not just byte values.
It's also useful for teaching how files are ultimately just sequences of bits, in a format more granular than a standard hex viewer.
Often used alongside Binary Values to Bitmap Converter and Bits to Bytes Converter.
Features
Advantages
- Shows the true bit-level content of any file, not just its byte-level hex representation.
- Uses the same row/offset layout as a familiar hexdump, so it's easy to read for anyone used to that format.
- Fully client-side; uploaded files never leave the browser.
Limitations
- Display is capped at the first 16,384 bytes for large files, to avoid rendering an excessively long dump.
- Binary is far more verbose per byte than hex (8 characters versus 2), so very wide terminals or fullscreen mode help when reading large dumps.
Examples
Best Practices & Notes
Best Practices
- Use fullscreen mode (via the panel's expand button) when inspecting files with many rows, since each binary group is 4x wider than the equivalent hex pair.
- Cross-reference a specific bit pattern you find here against the file format's specification to interpret flag or padding bytes correctly.
Developer Notes
Reads the uploaded `File` via `file.arrayBuffer()` into a `Uint8Array` (mirroring the approach used by the Hexdump Generator in the hex category), then formats each byte independently with `.toString(2).padStart(8, "0")` rather than converting through hex first.
Binary File Dumper Use Cases
- Inspecting the exact bit layout of a binary file format or protocol capture
- Debugging bit-packed fields, flags, or alignment padding in a custom file format
- Teaching how files are ultimately sequences of raw bits, one layer below hex
Common Mistakes
- Expecting the full contents of a very large file to display — dumps beyond 16,384 bytes are truncated for readability.
- Misreading the offset column as a byte count rather than a starting position — it's the hex offset of the first byte in that row.
Tips
- Download the dump as a text file for offline reference on very long outputs.
- Compare the binary dump of two similar files side by side to spot exactly which bits differ.