However, as you can see below, in hex edit mode the hex null (00 byte) character is easily identified and can quickly be removed or replaced. BinEditor is a Windows application that allows viewing and editing binary files. RegExp, disk editor, computer memory editor, checksum/hash calculations, logical bitwise/arithmetic data operations, file structure viewer with binary templates, modifying Intel HEX, Motorola S-recor. Download popular programs, drivers and latest updates easily. In text edit mode, this character isn’t visible and looks like a space. Using this freeware hex editor you'll be able to edit extremely large files/dumps of raw data and try advanced functions: search/replace data incl. The JSON file has been causing parse errors in the application that reads it due to an invalid character in the file. The screenshot below shows a JSON file viewed in regular text editor mode (on the left) and in hex editor mode (on the right). That said, a hex editor isn’t typically used to edit human-readable plain text like the letter “A” rather it is most often used to view and edit non-printable characters, control codes, formatting characters, and more.
Windows, UltraEdit, and other applications “see” the 41 byte value and interpret it as the character “A” – printing this to the screen, which is what you see when you open the file. Using text as an example, in UltraEdit when you see the letter “A” in text mode, the underlying byte value for the “A” character is 41. To put it simply, a hex editor allows you to edit the underlying bytes that comprise any file. You can use the hex editor to manipulate the low level bytes that are typically abstracted by the operating system and/or the application that processes the particular file type. A hex editor can be used to edit virtually any type of file.