Converting Between byte[] and String?

[Matt F]

How does one convert between byte[] and string?

MF

[Sericinus hunter]

Matt F wrote:

How does one convert between byte[] and string?

Will this help?

ASCIIEncoding encoding = new ASCIIEncoding();
char[] charArray = new char[encoding.GetCharCount(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length)];
encoding.GetDecoder().GetChars(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length, charArray, 0);
string s = new string(charArray);

[Chris Dunaway]

string to byte[]:

byte[] b = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("Hello World");

byte[] to string:

string s = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(b);
Of course you should use the appropriate encoding in place of ASCII in
my examples.

[Kevin Spencer]

You use the appropriate System.Text.Decoder class to convert the array to
the Text encoding that it represents/contains. This is typically done by
using an instance of the appropriate System.Text.Encoding class, and calling
the GetDecoder() method. Of course, you have to know what encoding was used
to create the byte array.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
Professional Numbskull

This is, by definition, not that.

"Matt F" <ma********************@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:o8Edg.75169$IZ2.51400@dukeread07...

How does one convert between byte[] and string?

MF

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Kevin Spencer <ke***@DIESPAMMERSDIEtakempis.com> wrote:

You use the appropriate System.Text.Decoder class to convert the array to
the Text encoding that it represents/contains. This is typically done by
using an instance of the appropriate System.Text.Encoding class, and calling
the GetDecoder() method. Of course, you have to know what encoding was used
to create the byte array.

Why use a Decoder explicitly, when Encoding.GetString will do it for
you? You only need a Decoder if you're decoding multiple chunks which
may introduce an issue of half of an encoded character being in one
chunk, and half being in the other chunk.

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Matt F <ma********************@gmail.com> wrote:

How does one convert between byte[] and string?

That entirely depends on the contents of the byte array, and how you
want to represent it.

The other answers in this thread have focused on the situation where
the byte array contains text which has been encoded with a particular
character encoding. If, however, your byte array contains arbitrary
binary data, you should consider using Convert.ToBase64String and
Convert.FromBase64String.

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Sericinus hunter <se*****@flash.net> wrote:

Matt F wrote:

How does one convert between byte[] and string?

Will this help?

ASCIIEncoding encoding = new ASCIIEncoding();
char[] charArray = new char[encoding.GetCharCount(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length)];
encoding.GetDecoder().GetChars(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length, charArray, 0);
string s = new string(charArray);

That looks like a very long way of writing:

string s = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(byteArray);

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

[Kevin Spencer]

The qyestion was asked in a geneneral way, so I have a less targeted
approach, which show the underling process, rather than a specific situation
and a simplified soltution for that situation.

Quite often, the solutin is indeed simle, but wihtout a specific enough set
of rules to establish the specific need, I am left to drop to more
elelementary explanation of the underling technology, from which I hop the
OP to glean the spedific implementation.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
Professional Numbskull

This is, by definition, not that.
"Jon Skeet [C# MVP]" <sk***@pobox.com> wrote in message
news:MP************************@msnews.microsoft.c om...

Kevin Spencer <ke***@DIESPAMMERSDIEtakempis.com> wrote:

You use the appropriate System.Text.Decoder class to convert the array to
the Text encoding that it represents/contains. This is typically done by
using an instance of the appropriate System.Text.Encoding class, and
calling
the GetDecoder() method. Of course, you have to know what encoding was
used
to create the byte array.

Why use a Decoder explicitly, when Encoding.GetString will do it for
you? You only need a Decoder if you're decoding multiple chunks which
may introduce an issue of half of an encoded character being in one
chunk, and half being in the other chunk.

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Kevin Spencer <ke***@DIESPAMMERSDIEtakempis.com> wrote:

The qyestion was asked in a geneneral way, so I have a less targeted
approach, which show the underling process, rather than a specific situation
and a simplified soltution for that situation.

Quite often, the solutin is indeed simle, but wihtout a specific enough set
of rules to establish the specific need, I am left to drop to more
elelementary explanation of the underling technology, from which I hop the
OP to glean the spedific implementation.

While I see your point, I would say that probably 99% of the time
people *don't* need to use a Decoder - and that using a Decoder
explicitly will make their code more complicated.

I can't remember the last time I needed to use Decoder rather than just
calling Encoding.GetString - I suspect it may have been when I was
writing my own version of BinaryReader, which is far from a normal
situation :)

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

[Kevin Spencer]

Boy, I must have been tired when I wrote my reply! I can't believe how many
speeling errors it contained! I'm so ashamed!

BTW, I too almost never use a Decoder explicitly!

--
;-),

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
Professional Numbskull

This is, by definition, not that.

"Jon Skeet [C# MVP]" <sk***@pobox.com> wrote in message
news:MP************************@msnews.microsoft.c om...

Kevin Spencer <ke***@DIESPAMMERSDIEtakempis.com> wrote:

The qyestion was asked in a geneneral way, so I have a less targeted
approach, which show the underling process, rather than a specific
situation
and a simplified soltution for that situation.

Quite often, the solutin is indeed simle, but wihtout a specific enough
set
of rules to establish the specific need, I am left to drop to more
elelementary explanation of the underling technology, from which I hop
the
OP to glean the spedific implementation.

While I see your point, I would say that probably 99% of the time
people *don't* need to use a Decoder - and that using a Decoder
explicitly will make their code more complicated.

I can't remember the last time I needed to use Decoder rather than just
calling Encoding.GetString - I suspect it may have been when I was
writing my own version of BinaryReader, which is far from a normal
situation :)

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too