There's a method, but it's a bit snarky....
There an encoding format code BASE64 (also known as UUEncoding in some
quarters). It take fully binary data (0-255) and converts it a set of 64
printable characters (digits, uppercase, lowercase plus two symbols + and
/). Since email messages are required to be pure printable text (due to
some ancient hardware, which are almost certainly no longer on the 'net),
all attachments are BASE64 encoded. It converts 3 binary bytes into 4
characters, so encoded blocks increase 33% in size.
So, what does this effect you? Well, as long as your "encoded" string meets
the criteria of Base64 encoding, you can "decode" it into a smaller block of
binary data. 4 characters will become 3 bytes, or in your case, 20
characters can become 15 bytes.
string origString = "123456,abcdef,ghijkl"; // 20 character CSV text
string prepareText = origString.Replace(',', '+'); // Replace commas with
plus signs
byte[] compressedText = Convert.FromBase64String(prepareText);
Console.WriteLine("Length of Conpressed text = {0}", compressedText.Length);
// Save compressedText to your store.
// :
// Later read it back
string alteredText = Convert.ToBase64String(compressedText);
string finalString = alteredText.Replace('+', ',');
Console.WriteLine("Text: {0}, this {1} the same as the original",
finalString, finalString == origString ? "IS" : "IS NOT");
Running the above, I get:
Length of Conpressed text = 15
Text: 123456,abcdef,ghijkl, this IS the same as the original
--
Truth,
James Curran
[erstwhile VC++ MVP]
Home:
www.noveltheory.com Work:
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"Ben Bloom" <bb****@macg.s.p.a.m.regor.com> wrote in message
news:ew**************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
Hi -
I was speaking with someone who mentioned that it's possible to encode
an ascii string as hex(?) in order to fit more data into the same # of
chars. Can anyone enlighten me?
The scenario is - I've got a CSV with a field that has a 16 character
limit. I need to fit potentially 24 ASCII characters into it.
Thanks.
-Ben
--
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