Is it possible to read from a file on windows and place into a string during build?

[BobaJFET]

I'm looking for a way to have cubeIDE read from a .bin or .txt file on windows 11 and insert it's contents into a string array in my code during the build process. 

So, if we have a file called "file.bin" stored somewhere on windows. 

and inside this file we have "Text from file.bin"

In our code we have

unsigned char string[];

After build we have

unsigned char string[] = "Text from file.bin"

 

 

[mƎALLEm]

Hello,

Maybe by using the prebuild feature and develop a script that reads that "file.bin" and updates your .c file?

https://community.st.com/t5/stm32cubeide-mcus/stm32cubeide-how-to-add-a-custom-pre-post-scripts/td-p/213698

[BobaJFET]

I think i'll go with a Python script. Thank you!

[mfgkw]

For this purpose I have a small (quite old) C++ program bin2c.cpp, which reads a file and generates initialization for a C array from it.

So from your sample file it would generate:

klwa4731@eso22169:~$ cat > file.bin
"Text from file.bin"
klwa4731@eso22169:~$ bin2c file.bin
klwa4731@eso22169:~$ cat file.bin.c 
 // file.bin.c
 // generated 29.09.2025 17:16:57 from file.bin
 // by /usb1/klaus/projekte/bin2c.cpp $Id: bin2c.cpp 2013 2023-12-10 06:37:28Z klaus $
 '\"', 'T', 'e', 'x', 't', ' ', 'f', 'r', 'o', 'm', ' ', 'f', 'i', 'l', 'e', '.',
 'b', 'i', 'n', '\"', 0x0a,
 // (21 bytes written)

The generated file can be included in your C code like this:

...
unsigned char mystring[] =
{
#include "file.bin.c"
 '\0'
};
...

 

A bit different is a similiar program bin2esc.cpp. It converts a file to an escape sequence. With option -p it changes to a printable string.

(The forum SW here fails to display an example output because of the escape sequences.)

You can use the output with #include... again.

 

There are many programs out there like these...

[Andrew Neil]

---

@mfgkw wrote:

The generated file can be included in your C code like this:.

---

Or just have your C++ program generate a complete C source file, and include that in your Project.

Similar to this.

 

[mfgkw]

true, but I have no excel :)

[Andrew Neil]

I did say similar - you can do the same in any other programming language.

It's just a matter of emitting text.