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WPFHexaEditor 3.4.5

WPFHexaEditor

A full-featured WPF hex editor UserControl for .NET 8.
Drop it into any WPF window — no IDE, no plugin host, no external dependencies.

dotnet add package WPFHexaEditor

Quick Start

1 — Add the namespace

<Window
 xmlns:hex="clr-namespace:WpfHexEditor.HexEditor;assembly=WpfHexEditor.HexEditor">

Both HexEditor and HexEditorSplitHost live in the same assembly — one declaration covers both.

2 — Place the control

Single editor:

<hex:HexEditor x:Name="HexEdit" />

With built-in split view:

<hex:HexEditorSplitHost x:Name="HexEdit" />

The split button is built into the toolbar — the user clicks it to open/close the second pane.
Access the underlying editor via HexEdit.PrimaryEditor.

3 — Open a file

// HexEditor
HexEdit.FileName = @"C:\path\to\file.bin";

// HexEditorSplitHost
HexEdit.OpenFile(@"C:\path\to\file.bin");
HexEdit.PrimaryEditor.FileName = @"C:\path\to\file.bin"; // equivalent

4 — Open a byte array (no file needed)

<hex:HexEditor ByteArray="{Binding MyBytes}" />

// Code-behind
HexEdit.ByteArray = new byte[] { 0x00, 0xFF, 0xDE, 0xAD };

// Async load (same result, returns Task.CompletedTask)
await HexEdit.OpenByteArrayAsync(myBuffer, readOnly: false);

// Retrieve the (possibly edited) buffer
byte[] modified = HexEdit.GetCurrentBytes();

// Save without a file — fires the ByteArraySaved event
HexEdit.ByteArraySaved += (_, bytes) => ProcessBytes(bytes);
HexEdit.SaveByteArray(); // or Ctrl+S in byte-array mode

5 — Open a stream

HexEdit.Stream = File.OpenRead("data.bin"); // HexEditor
HexEdit.OpenStream(File.OpenRead("data.bin")); // HexEditorSplitHost

6 — Read or modify bytes

// Read
byte b = HexEdit.GetByte(offset);

// Write (adds to undo stack)
HexEdit.SetByte(offset, 0xFF);

// Undo / redo
HexEdit.Undo();
HexEdit.Redo();

// Save
HexEdit.SubmitChanges(); // save to original file
HexEdit.SubmitChanges("out.bin"); // save to new file

7 — Resource dictionary (required)

Merge once in App.xaml so themes and brushes resolve correctly:

<Application.Resources>
 <ResourceDictionary>
 <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
 <ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/WpfHexEditor.HexEditor;component/Resources/Dictionary/Generic.xaml" />
 </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
 </ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>

Features

Viewing & Navigation

• Hex + ASCII panels with configurable column count
• Column and row cursor highlighting
• Line numbers and offset display (hex / decimal)
• Scroll marker panel
• Column ruler
• Go to offset (Ctrl+G)
• Read-only mode

Editing

• In-place byte editing in hex or ASCII panel
• Multi-byte selection with keyboard and mouse
• Drag-selection auto-scroll
• Undo / redo with UndoGroup transactions and coalescence
• Undo history dropdown
• Cut / copy / paste
• Fill selection with value

Format Detection

• 856 built-in format definitions (.whfmt) — auto-detection on open
• Format field overlay — semi-transparent colored blocks over detected structures
• Syntax coloring driven by format rules
• Shannon entropy, byte distribution, anomaly detection

Search

• Find (hex sequence, ASCII text, regex)
• Match case / whole word
• Search result highlighting with scroll-bar tick marks

Import / Export

• Intel HEX (.hex) import/export
• Motorola S-Record (.srec/.s19) import/export
• Binary template compiler (010 Editor compatible)
• ParsedFields export templates

In-Memory / Byte Array Mode

• ByteArray DependencyProperty — bind a byte[] directly in XAML, no file required
• OpenByteArrayAsync(byte[], readOnly) — programmatic load
• GetCurrentBytes() — snapshot of the current buffer including edits
• SaveByteArray() / ByteArraySaved event — save-without-file workflow
• IsByteArrayMode — flag to detect current backing mode
• IsDirty correctly tracks in-memory changes

UI Controls

• HexEditorSplitHost — synchronized split-view host with built-in toolbar toggle
• HexEditorSettings — auto-generated settings panel with live binding and JSON persistence
• HexBreadcrumbBar — visual structure navigator
• HexScrollMarkerPanel — overview of bookmarks, search hits, and changes

Parsed Fields Integration

• IParsedFieldsPanel — bridge interface for custom parsed-fields side panels
• ConnectParsedFieldsPanel() / DisconnectParsedFieldsPanel() — attach/detach at runtime
• GetByteProvider() — access the raw byte provider for custom analysis
• FindSelect(position, length) — jump to and select any byte range

Settings

• Full DependencyProperty API for programmatic control
• JSON settings persistence (export / import)
• ByteToolTipDisplayMode, ByteToolTipDetailLevel, MouseWheelSpeed, FontSize, BytePerLine, and 30+ more

What's New in 3.4.5

• New: First-class byte[] support — bind or set ByteArray directly in XAML without a file (issue #253).
• New: OpenByteArrayAsync(byte[], readOnly) — loads an in-memory buffer programmatically.
• New: GetCurrentBytes() — retrieves the current buffer (including unsaved edits) as byte[].
• New: ByteArraySaved event — fires on SaveByteArray() or Ctrl+S in byte-array mode; subscriber receives the full modified buffer.
• New: IsByteArrayMode property — true when the editor is backed by a byte[] rather than a file.
• Fix: IsDirty no longer returns true for a freshly loaded byte-array document with no edits.
• Fix: Save pipeline (SaveOrSaveAs) routes correctly through ByteArraySaved when in byte-array mode instead of opening a SaveFileDialog.
• No breaking API changes — drop-in upgrade from 3.4.0.

What's New in 3.4.0

• New: Entropy heatmap — per-byte Shannon entropy rendered as a color gradient directly on the hex grid. Toggle via the context menu or the ShowEntropyHeatmap dependency property; configure palette and block size from HexEditorSettings.
• New: HexEditorSettings entropy options page — EntropyBlockSize, EntropyColorLow, EntropyColorHigh, theme-aware palette.
• Updated: whfmt.FileFormatCatalog → 1.5.0 (856 format definitions, schema v3.1 with embeddedLanguages[] support).
• Fix: Undo/redo fully wired in standalone mode — Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y no longer swallowed when the control is hosted outside a docking shell.
• Fix: IsDirty correctly resets to false after undoing all changes back to the original state.
• No breaking API changes — drop-in upgrade from 3.3.x.

What's New in 3.3.2

• Fix: HexEditorLocalizedDictionary is now merged into UserControl.Resources — resolves XamlParseException at startup when localization StaticResource keys are used outside the ContextMenu tree (standalone and IDE mode both affected).
• No public API changes — drop-in upgrade from 3.3.1.

What's New in 3.3.1

• Updated to whfmt.FileFormatCatalog 1.3.2 (whfmt v3 GA) — 799 format definitions, runtime expression engine, schema v3 canonical.
• Fix: Split-view focus border hidden when the split is closed (was leaving a stale frame around the empty secondary slot).
• Fix: Breadcrumb bar synced in the secondary pane after layout reload.
• Fix: All mutation types + initial paint + standalone-mode split correctly synced between primary and secondary editors.
• Fix: Module panels now return singleton instances — prevents the dual-cache stale-placeholder bug when reopening a tool panel after it was closed.
• No public API changes — drop-in upgrade from 3.3.0.

What's New in 3.3.0

• New: HexEditorSplitHost — drop-in split-view host wrapping a primary + optional secondary HexEditor; synchronized scrolling, mutations, and breadcrumb.
• New: HexEditorSettings — auto-generated settings panel UserControl; exposes every HexEditor DependencyProperty with live binding, color picker, JSON export/import.
• New: IParsedFieldsPanel integration API — ConnectParsedFieldsPanel() / DisconnectParsedFieldsPanel(), GetByteProvider(), FindSelect(position, length).
• New: Themed MessageBox / IDialogService — drop-in replacement for MessageBox.Show; injectable, themeable via DynamicResource, usable in any WPF host.
• New: +10 localizations — uk-UA, cs-CZ, vi-VN, hu-HU, ro-RO, id-ID, th-TH, el-GR, da-DK, fi-FI (now 28 languages total).
• Fix: Split-view secondary pane — breadcrumb bar now syncs correctly; all mutation types (insert, delete, replace) propagated to secondary.
• Fix: Focus border hidden when split panel is closed.

What's New in 3.2.0

• New: Go to position dialog — jump directly to any byte offset via Ctrl+G.
• New: Unified UndoEngine — Ctrl+Z/Ctrl+Y history now uses a shared undo engine; undo groups and coalescence work consistently across sessions.
• Fix: Drag-selection auto-scroll — window-level mouse capture ensures scrolling continues when the cursor leaves the control boundary.
• Fix: Column highlight defaults — ShowColumnHighlight and ShowAsciiColumnHighlight now default to false to reduce visual noise out-of-the-box.
• Fix: HexBreadcrumbBar freeze — Render-priority dispatcher guard prevents mouse re-dispatch loop during visual tree rebuild on rapid navigation.
• Fix: HexBreadcrumbBar double rebuild — phantom empty row caused by XAML/code-behind duplication resolved; bookmark chip re-render only fires on actual bookmark set changes.
• Perf: ByteProvider extracted to WpfHexEditor.Core.ByteProvider standalone library.

What's New in 3.1.3

• Feat: 155+ new .whfmt format definitions added (Groups C–J) — total now exceeds 600 definitions.
• Feat: FormatSchemaValidator wired — .whfmt files are now validated against schema v3 at load time; violations are reported via FormatLoadFailure.
• Feat: .whfmt schema bumped to v2.3 — references and detection fields unified across all categories.
• Fix: Stream operations — contributor enhancements to stream-backed byte provider edge cases.
• Fix: ForensicPattern tolerant converter — invalid pattern values no longer throw; fallback to null with log entry.
• New: InputFilter control — reusable filter-bar UserControl for hex/byte input.
• New: HexStringToColorConverter — XAML binding converter for hex color strings.

What's New in 3.1.2

• Fix: Corrupted or malformed .whfmt files no longer crash the host application — load failures are captured in FormatLoadFailure and surfaced in the StatusBar (⚠ N whfmt failed to load) instead of propagating exceptions.
• Perf: EmbeddedFormatCatalog singleton and lazy caches modernized — LazyInitializer.EnsureInitialized replaces manual double-checked lock; GetAll() / GetCategories() now return IReadOnlySet<T> backed by FrozenSet<T> for better thread safety and lookup performance.
• Test: MakeEntries(rethrow: true) / MakeCategories() exposed as public static factory methods — enables LoadResourcesTest build gate.
• Feat: New format definition ROM_SNES_SRM (SNES save RAM).
• Fix: .whfmt references schema v2 standardized across Game and Archives categories.

What's New in 3.1.1

• Fix: TechnicalDetails.SampleRate changed from int? to string?.
• Fix: MOBI.whfmt references structure corrected.
• Fix: GFX.whfmt, TIL.whfmt, CHR.whfmt Platform field corrected.
• Fix: 5 .whfmt files with invalid Strength values corrected.
• Perf: JsonSerializerOptions in ImportFromJson is now a static readonly field — avoids 463+ allocations at startup.

What's New in 3.1.0

• Fix: SignatureStrength enum now correctly deserialized — was silently falling back to None(0), causing all TIER 1 strong-signature formats to be excluded from detection.
• Fix: TIER 1 candidates scored before early-exit check.
• Fix: TIER 2 text-heuristic suppressed when TIER 1 has a match.
• Fix: Entropy check skipped for Strong/Unique signatures.
• Fix: EmbeddedFormatCatalog.GetAll() fully thread-safe.
• Fix: 463 .whfmt block-comment headers removed (fixes #229).
• Fix: HexBreadcrumbBar ContextMenu fully opaque in standalone apps.

What's New in 3.0.4

• Fix: ResourceReferenceKeyNotFoundException no longer thrown in standalone WPF apps (fixes #228).
• Fix: Drag-selection auto-scroll — cross-panel mouse boundary no longer stops scrolling (fixes #227).
• Fix: Column/row highlight tracks cursor on vertical scroll.
• Feat: Context menu — drop shadow, MDL2 icons, accent band, light theme.

What's New in 3.0.0 (since WPFHexaEditor 2.1.7)

Breaking changes: .NET 8.0-windows only, namespace WPFHexaEditor → WpfHexEditor.HexEditor, assembly renamed, modular architecture.
See full changelog in the GitHub repository.

Included Assemblies

All bundled inside the package — zero external NuGet dependencies:

Localizations (28): ar-SA, cs-CZ, da-DK, de-DE, el-GR, es-419, es-ES, fi-FI, fr-CA, fr-FR, hi-IN, hu-HU, id-ID, it-IT, ja-JP, ko-KR, nl-NL, pl-PL, pt-BR, pt-PT, ro-RO, ru-RU, sv-SE, th-TH, tr-TR, uk-UA, vi-VN, zh-CN

License

GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0)

Links

• Full documentation: WPFHexaEditor-guide.md — Architecture, API reference, integration guides (Level 1–4), format detection, search, export, and settings reference.
• GitHub Repository
• Report Issues