Convert bytes, megabytes

Numbers in bytes can be represented in megabytes. This gives you a more user-friendly number to display to your user.

A C# program may also use this method to display the size of files in a user interface. Kilobytes and gigabytes are also handled.

Example

First we see a static method that converts a number in bytes to megabytes. This helps with user interfaces and communicating to your users a more readable file size.

using System;

class Program
{
    static double ConvertBytesToMegabytes(long bytes)
    {
        return (bytes / 1024f) / 1024f;
    }

    static double ConvertKilobytesToMegabytes(long kilobytes)
    {
        return kilobytes / 1024f;
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        // Convert bytes to megabytes.
        double megabytes1 = ConvertBytesToMegabytes(100000L);

        // Write the result.
        Console.WriteLine("{0} bytes = {1} megabytes",
            100000L,
            megabytes1);

        // Convert kilobytes to megabytes.
        double megabytes2 = ConvertKilobytesToMegabytes(1024L);

        // Write the result.
        Console.WriteLine("{0} kilobytes = {1} megabytes",
            1024L,
            megabytes2);
    }
}
100000 bytes = 0.095367431640625 megabytes
1024 kilobytes = 1 megabytes

Example 2

You can use the FileInfo class to figure out the length of the file in bytes. We can then convert the file information to a formatted string in megabytes.

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static double ConvertBytesToMegabytes(long bytes)
    {
        return (bytes / 1024f) / 1024f;
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        // Get the file information.
        FileInfo info = new FileInfo("Anthem.html");

        // Now convert to a string in megabytes.
        string s = ConvertBytesToMegabytes(info.Length).ToString("0.00");

        // Convert bytes to megabytes.
        Console.WriteLine("{0} bytes = {1} megabytes",
            info.Length,
            s);
    }
}
126593 bytes = 0.12 megabytes

Example 3

We have a number that is in the form of gigabytes, terabytes or megabytes. We want to convert it to another unit scale. This can help with displaying high-level information.

using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        Console.WriteLine(ConvertMegabytesToGigabytes(100000));
        Console.WriteLine(ConvertMegabytesToTerabytes(100000));
        Console.WriteLine(ConvertGigabytesToMegabytes(1));
        Console.WriteLine(ConvertGigabytesToTerabytes(10000));
        Console.WriteLine(ConvertTerabytesToMegabytes(1));
        Console.WriteLine(ConvertTerabytesToGigabytes(10));
    }

    static double ConvertMegabytesToGigabytes(double megabytes) // SMALLER
    {
        // 1024 megabyte in a gigabyte
        return megabytes / 1024.0;
    }

    static double ConvertMegabytesToTerabytes(double megabytes) // SMALLER
    {
        // 1024 * 1024 megabytes in a terabyte
        return megabytes / (1024.0 * 1024.0);
    }

    static double ConvertGigabytesToMegabytes(double gigabytes) // BIGGER
    {
        // 1024 gigabytes in a terabyte
        return gigabytes * 1024.0;
    }

    static double ConvertGigabytesToTerabytes(double gigabytes) // SMALLER
    {
        // 1024 gigabytes in a terabyte
        return gigabytes / 1024.0;
    }

    static double ConvertTerabytesToMegabytes(double terabytes) // BIGGER
    {
        // 1024 * 1024 megabytes in a terabyte
        return terabytes * (1024.0 * 1024.0);
    }

    static double ConvertTerabytesToGigabytes(double terabytes) // BIGGER
    {
        // 1024 gigabytes in a terabyte
        return terabytes * 1024.0;
    }
}
97.65625
0.095367431640625
1024
9.765625
1048576
10240

Notes, verification

The double type in the C# programming language can overflow. For this reason, you can't convert huge byte sizes with this method.

We converted between bytes, kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes. This code is correct—it matches the results that are returned by search engines.