Encoding.ASCII.GetString()

[devgrt]

C#:
I have a buffer that is populated with char data from a DLL:
byte [] ret = new byte[1024];
I want to convert to a C# string:
string msg = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(ret, 0, ret.Length);

The problem is I never know in advance what size the string will be. When I
call Encoding.ASCII.GetString I need to specify the size. If I set it to
ret.Length as above then in the debugger I can see msg is the full 1024
bytes (0 padded at the end regardless of the actual string's size).
How can I look at a byte[] and determine the size of the string in it (I
know I could just loop and look for the first occurance of 0 -- is tha tthe
best way?)

Thank you!

[Vadym Stetsyak]

Hello, devgrt!

d> The problem is I never know in advance what size the string will be.
d> When I call Encoding.ASCII.GetString I need to specify the size. If I
d> set it to ret.Length as above then in the debugger I can see msg is the
d> full 1024 bytes (0 padded at the end regardless of the actual string's
d> size). How can I look at a byte[] and determine the size of the string
d> in it (I know I could just loop and look for the first occurance of 0 --
d> is tha tthe best way?)

You can use Encoding.ASCII.GetCharCount();
However, why do you need to know the size of the string int the byte[]?

--
Regards, Vadym Stetsyak
www: http://vadmyst.blogspot.com

[devgrt]

Thank you for reply!
The reason I need to know the length is that I need to specify it in:
string msg = Encoding.ASCII.GetString();
if I say string msg = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(ret, 0, ret.Length); then if
I look at my string msg in debug it is ret.Length and is zero-padded to the
end. If I do msg.Length I always get the ret.Length as opposed to the actual
size of teh string in msg. msg is still useable since it is zero-padded so
MessageBox.Show(msg) works OK but I dont want to waste the space by having
msg larger than it needs to be.

"Vadym Stetsyak" <va*****@ukr.net> wrote in message
news:OB**************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

Hello, devgrt!

d> The problem is I never know in advance what size the string will be.
d> When I call Encoding.ASCII.GetString I need to specify the size. If I
d> set it to ret.Length as above then in the debugger I can see msg is the
d> full 1024 bytes (0 padded at the end regardless of the actual string's
d> size). How can I look at a byte[] and determine the size of the string
d> in it (I know I could just loop and look for the first occurance of
0 --
d> is tha tthe best way?)

You can use Encoding.ASCII.GetCharCount();
However, why do you need to know the size of the string int the byte[]?

--
Regards, Vadym Stetsyak
www: http://vadmyst.blogspot.com

[Vadym Stetsyak]

You didn't get it right...

in Encoding.ASCII.GetString(....) you specify the length of the buffer and not the length of the string...

then if
I look at my string msg in debug it is ret.Length and is zero-padded to the
end. If I do msg.Length I always get the ret.Length

That is true for ASCII encoding ( every char is equal to 1 byte ), but if you will consider Unicode string ( 1 char is equal to 2 bytes ) then this will break your asumptions...

Internally Encoding.GetString() checks how much symbols of specified encoding are there in the buffer, and creates string that has the same number of symbols ( no waste here ).

You can use Encoding.....GetString() and fear nothing :8-)

--
Regards, Vadym Stetsyak
www: http://vadmyst.blogspot.com