How do I read a binary file in C++ if I generate it in Java?

I’m working on an encryption algorithm and I need to generate some information in Java (a binary file) to read in C++.

I’m not sure if the problem is how I create the binary file or how I read it, though I can perfectly read the information in Java.

So I made a simple test. In Java I save the number 9 to a binary file, and then I try to read it in C++, but it does not read a number.

Can someone please tell me how I can do this?

The Java code:

int x = 9;

        try{
            ObjectOutputStream salida=new ObjectOutputStream(new 
            FileOutputStream("test.bin"));
            salida.writeInt(x);
            salida.close();
            System.out.println("saved");
        } catch(Exception e){
            System.out.println(e);
        }

The C++ code:

streampos size;
  char * memblock;

  ifstream file ("test.bin", ios::in|ios::binary|ios::ate);
  if (file.is_open())
  {
    size = file.tellg();
    cout<< size << endl;
    memblock = new char [size];
    file.seekg (0, ios::beg);
    file.read (memblock, size);
    file.close();

    int i;
    for (i = 0; i < sizeof(memblock); i++)
    {
        cout << memblock[i] <<endl;
    }
 delete[] memblock;
  }
  else cout << "Unable to open file";

This is the output:

�
�


w

Answer

Your problem is that you are using ObjectOutputStream to write the data. This encodes the object graph in a Java-specific form intended to be read with ObjectInputStream. To make the data stream compatible with C++ you would need to do one of two things:

1. Implement in C++ code that understands the output format produced by ObjectOutputStream — i.e. re-implement in C++ what Java does in ObjectInputStream. This is NOT recommended.
2. Write your data out from Java using a standard FileOutputStream, in a serialized format that you define, that then can be read by your C++ code. How you specify and implement this is up to you but can be very simple, depending on the complexity of your data.