Weird charcters in java class file when viewed in Notepad++ or Notepad

Question

Hi, I'm trying to view a java class file in Notepad++ or Notepad, it was in a .jar file and I unzipped it, and it has characters like NUL and DC1 and DC2 and SOH and other "gibberish" looking characters...is there a way to fix/avoid this?

Answer 1

Class files are binary files compiled from source code. They're not supposed to be human readable. You want to find the .java source files used to create them if you want to read the code.

Or use a Java decompiler to revert the class files back into source code.

Answer 2

Class files are binary, not text. They're not supposed to look correct in a text editor.