Easy way to see hex-ascii dump of file?

[Joe User]

Is there an easy way to see a hex-and-ascii dump of file?

I can write a VBA macro to read and format the data myself.

But it would be so much easier (of course) if there already exists a (DOS?)
command to do this, like an option to TYPE or MORE. (None that I see with
HELP.)

I am somewhat adept at using VBA in Excel. Is there a feature of that VBA
that I can exploit, short of rolling my own?

I am using Win XP SP3.

PS: I discovered that I can use the DOS command DEBUG, viz.: `debug myfile
>myout`, followed by the DEBUG "d" and "q" commands. That is the kind of
output I am looking for. But the usage is a little baroque. Besides, that
does not work for large files (5.2 Mbytes). I get an "insufficient memory"
error.

(I do not really want to format the entire large file content in hex/ascii.
The ideal command/application would permit me to format subsets on-screen,
then format a selected range into a file, something like the DEBUG d
command. But I would settle for formatting the entire file, then writing a
VBA macro to parse the result and output only the desired range of data.)

 

[Joe User]

I wrote:
> The ideal command/application would permit me to format subsets on-screen,
> then format a selected range into a file, something like the DEBUG d
> command. But I would settle for formatting the entire file, then writing
> a VBA macro to parse the result and output only the desired range of data.

Still interested in a better approach.

But I solved my immediate problem by reversing the steps. I wrote a VBA
macro to extract the interesting subset of the file; then I used debug `d`
to format the subset in hex/ascii.


----- original message ------

"Joe User" <joeu2004> wrote in message
news:uMLAFLa2KHA.5588@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Is there an easy way to see a hex-and-ascii dump of file?
>
> I can write a VBA macro to read and format the data myself.
>
> But it would be so much easier (of course) if there already exists a
> (DOS?) command to do this, like an option to TYPE or MORE. (None that I
> see with HELP.)
>
> I am somewhat adept at using VBA in Excel. Is there a feature of that VBA
> that I can exploit, short of rolling my own?
>
> I am using Win XP SP3.
>
> PS: I discovered that I can use the DOS command DEBUG, viz.: `debug
> myfile
> >myout`, followed by the DEBUG "d" and "q" commands. That is the kind of
> output I am looking for. But the usage is a little baroque. Besides,
> that does not work for large files (5.2 Mbytes). I get an "insufficient
> memory" error.
>
> (I do not really want to format the entire large file content in
> hex/ascii. The ideal command/application would permit me to format subsets
> on-screen, then format a selected range into a file, something like the
> DEBUG d command. But I would settle for formatting the entire file, then
> writing a VBA macro to parse the result and output only the desired range
> of data.)

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

On 4/11/2010 1:14 PM, Joe User wrote:
> Is there an easy way to see a hex-and-ascii dump of file?
>
> I can write a VBA macro to read and format the data myself.
>
> But it would be so much easier (of course) if there already exists a
> (DOS?) command to do this, like an option to TYPE or MORE. (None that I
> see with HELP.)
>
> I am somewhat adept at using VBA in Excel. Is there a feature of that
> VBA that I can exploit, short of rolling my own?
>
> I am using Win XP SP3.
>
> PS: I discovered that I can use the DOS command DEBUG, viz.: `debug
> myfile >myout`, followed by the DEBUG "d" and "q" commands. That is the
> kind of output I am looking for. But the usage is a little baroque.
> Besides, that does not work for large files (5.2 Mbytes). I get an
> "insufficient memory" error.
>
> (I do not really want to format the entire large file content in
> hex/ascii. The ideal command/application would permit me to format
> subsets on-screen, then format a selected range into a file, something
> like the DEBUG d command. But I would settle for formatting the entire
> file, then writing a VBA macro to parse the result and output only the
> desired range of data.)

What about a hex editor such as: http://tinyurl.com/yw5yp

 

[ju.c]

You need a Hex Editor.

TinyHexer is the best free one.

TinyHexer 540 KB (Freeware)
Web: http://www.mirkes.de/files/
Download: http://www.mirkes.de/files/tinyhexer.cab


ju.c


"Joe User" <joeu2004> wrote in message news:uMLAFLa2KHA.5588@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Is there an easy way to see a hex-and-ascii dump of file?
>
> I can write a VBA macro to read and format the data myself.
>
> But it would be so much easier (of course) if there already exists a (DOS?)
> command to do this, like an option to TYPE or MORE. (None that I see with
> HELP.)
>
> I am somewhat adept at using VBA in Excel. Is there a feature of that VBA
> that I can exploit, short of rolling my own?
>
> I am using Win XP SP3.
>
> PS: I discovered that I can use the DOS command DEBUG, viz.: `debug myfile
> >myout`, followed by the DEBUG "d" and "q" commands. That is the kind of
> output I am looking for. But the usage is a little baroque. Besides, that
> does not work for large files (5.2 Mbytes). I get an "insufficient memory"
> error.
>
> (I do not really want to format the entire large file content in hex/ascii.
> The ideal command/application would permit me to format subsets on-screen,
> then format a selected range into a file, something like the DEBUG d
> command. But I would settle for formatting the entire file, then writing a
> VBA macro to parse the result and output only the desired range of data.)
>

 

[Don Phillipson]

"Joe User" <joeu2004> wrote in message
news:uMLAFLa2KHA.5588@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> Is there an easy way to see a hex-and-ascii dump of file?

PC Tools could do this nearly 20 years ago: so does the
file browser PowerDesk, nowadays sold at www.vcom.com

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)