How to encode and decode a text file to binary in c#?

Question

For my Unity Game, I want to save player data by using text files. Text files can be easily modified and so can the data in them be modified. So, I would like to convert the text files to 0's and 1's. So that when you open it you should see 0101011 instead of readable and editable data. I know that I can use Read Bytes of File and replace the text in the file with this data, but how in the world do I make it data again? I need help with that.

Answer 1

Text files can be easily modified and so can the data in them be modified.

Is this a problem? games are made to have fun, so why do you want to stop the user from gaming how he wants? If it is a competitive multiplayer game, or any type of game involving actual money, you should not rely on any data on the client.

So, I would like to convert the text files to 0's and 1's. So that when you open it you should see 0101011 instead of readable and editable data

Please do not do this, it will just reduce performance for no benefit. If you do not want trivial modification of data, just use a binary serialization format. Or use the Unity provided storage options. Using binary serialization will likely be faster and produce smaller files, at the cost of making modifications more difficult. But you do not seem concerned about the last point.

Converting objects to serialized data and back again is a common operation, and there are great libraries for it. Json is common for textual data, I have used Protobuf .net for binary data, and find it quite fast and easy to use.