.NET: Convert Number to Binary String

Just a few lines of code are required to convert a number to a binary string.

public class Convert
{
	public static string NumberToBinaryString(ulong bits)
	{
		string ret = string.Empty;
		if(bits == 0)
			ret = "0";
		else
			while (bits != 0)
			{
				ret += (char)((bits & 1) + '0'); // NOTE: does not use conditional
				bits >>= 1;
			}
		char[] chars = ret.ToCharArray();
		Array.Reverse(chars);
		return string.Join("", chars);
	}
}

Two's Complement

string binary = Convert.NumberToBinaryString(4); // binary == "100"

Sign Magnitude

int bits = -4;
if(bits < 0)
	bits = -bits;
string binary = Convert.NumberToBinaryString((ulong)bits);

One's Complement

int bits = -4;
if(bits < 0)
	bits--;
string binary = Convert.NumberToBinaryString((ulong)bits);

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