Related
I have a byte[] array that is loaded from a file that I happen to known contains UTF-8.
In some debugging code, I need to convert it to a string. Is there a one-liner that will do this?
Under the covers it should be just an allocation and a memcopy, so even if it is not implemented, it should be possible.
string result = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(byteArray);
There're at least four different ways doing this conversion.
Encoding's GetString, but you won't be able to get the original bytes back if those bytes have non-ASCII characters.
BitConverter.ToString The output is a "-" delimited string, but there's no .NET built-in method to convert the string back to byte array.
Convert.ToBase64String You can easily convert the output string back to byte array by using Convert.FromBase64String. Note: The output string could contain '+', '/' and '='. If you want to use the string in a URL, you need to explicitly encode it.
HttpServerUtility.UrlTokenEncodeYou can easily convert the output string back to byte array by using HttpServerUtility.UrlTokenDecode. The output string is already URL friendly! The downside is it needs System.Web assembly if your project is not a web project.
A full example:
byte[] bytes = { 130, 200, 234, 23 }; // A byte array contains non-ASCII (or non-readable) characters
string s1 = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes); // ���
byte[] decBytes1 = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(s1); // decBytes1.Length == 10 !!
// decBytes1 not same as bytes
// Using UTF-8 or other Encoding object will get similar results
string s2 = BitConverter.ToString(bytes); // 82-C8-EA-17
String[] tempAry = s2.Split('-');
byte[] decBytes2 = new byte[tempAry.Length];
for (int i = 0; i < tempAry.Length; i++)
decBytes2[i] = Convert.ToByte(tempAry[i], 16);
// decBytes2 same as bytes
string s3 = Convert.ToBase64String(bytes); // gsjqFw==
byte[] decByte3 = Convert.FromBase64String(s3);
// decByte3 same as bytes
string s4 = HttpServerUtility.UrlTokenEncode(bytes); // gsjqFw2
byte[] decBytes4 = HttpServerUtility.UrlTokenDecode(s4);
// decBytes4 same as bytes
A general solution to convert from byte array to string when you don't know the encoding:
static string BytesToStringConverted(byte[] bytes)
{
using (var stream = new MemoryStream(bytes))
{
using (var streamReader = new StreamReader(stream))
{
return streamReader.ReadToEnd();
}
}
}
Definition:
public static string ConvertByteToString(this byte[] source)
{
return source != null ? System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(source) : null;
}
Using:
string result = input.ConvertByteToString();
Converting a byte[] to a string seems simple, but any kind of encoding is likely to mess up the output string. This little function just works without any unexpected results:
private string ToString(byte[] bytes)
{
string response = string.Empty;
foreach (byte b in bytes)
response += (Char)b;
return response;
}
I saw some answers at this post and it's possible to be considered completed base knowledge, because I have a several approaches in C# Programming to resolve the same problem. The only thing that is necessary to be considered is about a difference between pure UTF-8 and UTF-8 with a BOM.
Last week, at my job, I needed to develop one functionality that outputs CSV files with a BOM and other CSV files with pure UTF-8 (without a BOM). Each CSV file encoding type will be consumed by different non-standardized APIs. One API reads UTF-8 with a BOM and the other API reads without a BOM. I needed to research the references about this concept, reading the "What's the difference between UTF-8 and UTF-8 without BOM?" Stack Overflow question, and the Wikipedia article "Byte order mark" to build my approach.
Finally, my C# Programming for both UTF-8 encoding types (with BOM and pure) needed to be similar to this example below:
// For UTF-8 with BOM, equals shared by Zanoni (at top)
string result = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(byteArray);
//for Pure UTF-8 (without B.O.M.)
string result = (new UTF8Encoding(false)).GetString(byteArray);
Using (byte)b.ToString("x2"), Outputs b4b5dfe475e58b67
public static class Ext {
public static string ToHexString(this byte[] hex)
{
if (hex == null) return null;
if (hex.Length == 0) return string.Empty;
var s = new StringBuilder();
foreach (byte b in hex) {
s.Append(b.ToString("x2"));
}
return s.ToString();
}
public static byte[] ToHexBytes(this string hex)
{
if (hex == null) return null;
if (hex.Length == 0) return new byte[0];
int l = hex.Length / 2;
var b = new byte[l];
for (int i = 0; i < l; ++i) {
b[i] = Convert.ToByte(hex.Substring(i * 2, 2), 16);
}
return b;
}
public static bool EqualsTo(this byte[] bytes, byte[] bytesToCompare)
{
if (bytes == null && bytesToCompare == null) return true; // ?
if (bytes == null || bytesToCompare == null) return false;
if (object.ReferenceEquals(bytes, bytesToCompare)) return true;
if (bytes.Length != bytesToCompare.Length) return false;
for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; ++i) {
if (bytes[i] != bytesToCompare[i]) return false;
}
return true;
}
}
There is also class UnicodeEncoding, quite simple in usage:
ByteConverter = new UnicodeEncoding();
string stringDataForEncoding = "My Secret Data!";
byte[] dataEncoded = ByteConverter.GetBytes(stringDataForEncoding);
Console.WriteLine("Data after decoding: {0}", ByteConverter.GetString(dataEncoded));
In addition to the selected answer, if you're using .NET 3.5 or .NET 3.5 CE, you have to specify the index of the first byte to decode, and the number of bytes to decode:
string result = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length);
Alternatively:
var byteStr = Convert.ToBase64String(bytes);
The BitConverter class can be used to convert a byte[] to string.
var convertedString = BitConverter.ToString(byteAttay);
Documentation of BitConverter class can be fount on MSDN.
To my knowledge none of the given answers guarantee correct behavior with null termination. Until someone shows me differently I wrote my own static class for handling this with the following methods:
// Mimics the functionality of strlen() in c/c++
// Needed because niether StringBuilder or Encoding.*.GetString() handle \0 well
static int StringLength(byte[] buffer, int startIndex = 0)
{
int strlen = 0;
while
(
(startIndex + strlen + 1) < buffer.Length // Make sure incrementing won't break any bounds
&& buffer[startIndex + strlen] != 0 // The typical null terimation check
)
{
++strlen;
}
return strlen;
}
// This is messy, but I haven't found a built-in way in c# that guarentees null termination
public static string ParseBytes(byte[] buffer, out int strlen, int startIndex = 0)
{
strlen = StringLength(buffer, startIndex);
byte[] c_str = new byte[strlen];
Array.Copy(buffer, startIndex, c_str, 0, strlen);
return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(c_str);
}
The reason for the startIndex was in the example I was working on specifically I needed to parse a byte[] as an array of null terminated strings. It can be safely ignored in the simple case
A LINQ one-liner for converting a byte array byteArrFilename read from a file to a pure ASCII C-style zero-terminated string would be this: Handy for reading things like file index tables in old archive formats.
String filename = new String(byteArrFilename.TakeWhile(x => x != 0)
.Select(x => x < 128 ? (Char)x : '?').ToArray());
I use '?' as the default character for anything not pure ASCII here, but that can be changed, of course. If you want to be sure you can detect it, just use '\0' instead, since the TakeWhile at the start ensures that a string built this way cannot possibly contain '\0' values from the input source.
Try this console application:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//Encoding _UTF8 = Encoding.UTF8;
string[] _mainString = { "Hello, World!" };
Console.WriteLine("Main String: " + _mainString);
// Convert a string to UTF-8 bytes.
byte[] _utf8Bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(_mainString[0]);
// Convert UTF-8 bytes to a string.
string _stringuUnicode = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(_utf8Bytes);
Console.WriteLine("String Unicode: " + _stringuUnicode);
}
Here is a result where you didn’t have to bother with encoding. I used it in my network class and send binary objects as string with it.
public static byte[] String2ByteArray(string str)
{
char[] chars = str.ToArray();
byte[] bytes = new byte[chars.Length * 2];
for (int i = 0; i < chars.Length; i++)
Array.Copy(BitConverter.GetBytes(chars[i]), 0, bytes, i * 2, 2);
return bytes;
}
public static string ByteArray2String(byte[] bytes)
{
char[] chars = new char[bytes.Length / 2];
for (int i = 0; i < chars.Length; i++)
chars[i] = BitConverter.ToChar(bytes, i * 2);
return new string(chars);
}
string result = ASCIIEncoding.UTF8.GetString(byteArray);
I want to convert text into binary and after that, to try convert binary into string text.
How can i convert tobin back into text if it is already a string?
private void iTalk_Button_12_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ambiance_RichTextBox2.Text = tobin(ambiance_RichTextBox1.Text);
}
public string tobin(string inp)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (char L in inp.ToCharArray())
{
sb.Append(Convert.ToString(L, 2).PadLeft(8, '0'));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
private void iTalk_Button_12_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ambiance_RichTextBox2.Text = BinaryToString(ambiance_RichTextBox1.Text);
//use what u need: BinaryToString or StringToBinary.
}
Convert String to Binary:
public static string StringToBinary(string data)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (char c in data.ToCharArray())
{
sb.Append(Convert.ToString(c, 2).PadLeft(8, '0'));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
Convert Binary to String:
public static string BinaryToString(string data)
{
List<Byte> byteList = new List<Byte>();
for (int i = 0; i < data.Length; i += 8)
{
byteList.Add(Convert.ToByte(data.Substring(i, 8), 2));
}
return Encoding.ASCII.GetString(byteList.ToArray());
}
Good luck!
You can use like this,
public static string BinaryToString(string data)
{
List<Byte> byteList = new List<Byte>();
for (int i = 0; i < data.Length; i += 8)
{
byteList.Add(Convert.ToByte(data.Substring(i, 8), 2));
}
return Encoding.ASCII.GetString(byteList.ToArray());
}
Currently you are converting a char (which can be represented as a number) to its binary representation (this number is the ASCII number). But if you want to convert a string to binary, you should use an encoding. The encoding determines how the text is converted to binary.
For example:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string input = "This is an example text.";
Console.WriteLine(input);
string asBin = ToBinary(input);
Console.WriteLine(asBin);
string asText = ToText(asBin);
Console.WriteLine(asText);
}
static string ToBinary(string input, System.Text.Encoding encoding = null)
{
if (encoding == null)
encoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
var builder = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
var bytes = encoding.GetBytes(input); // Convert the text to bytes using the encoding
foreach (var b in bytes)
builder.Append(Convert.ToString(b, 2).PadLeft(8, '0')); //Convert the byte to its binary representation
return builder.ToString();
}
static string ToText(string bytes, System.Text.Encoding encoding = null)
{
if (encoding == null)
encoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
var byteCount = 8;
var byteArray = new byte[bytes.Length / 8]; // An array for the bytes
for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length / byteCount; i++)
{
var subBytes = bytes.Substring(i * byteCount, byteCount); // Get a subpart of 8 bits
var b = Convert.ToByte(subBytes.TrimStart('0'), 2); // Convert the subpart to a byte
byteArray[i] = b; // Add the byte to the array
}
return encoding.GetString(byteArray); // Convert the array to text using the right encoding.
}
Now if you want to use ASCII encoding, you can call the functions as follows:
Console.WriteLine(input);
string asBin = ToBinary(input, System.Text.Encoding.ASCII);
Console.WriteLine(asBin);
string asText = ToText(asBin, System.Text.Encoding.ASCII);
Console.WriteLine(asText);
To convert a string to binary
string s = "hai";
byte []arr = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(s);
To convert binary to string
byte[] arr ;
string s = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(arr);
I've a mixed file with a lot of string line and part of byte encoded data.
Example:
--Begin Attach
Content-Info: /Format=TIF
Content-Description: 30085949.tif (TIF File)
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary; Length=220096
II*II* Îh ÿÿÿÿÿÿü³küìpsMg›Êq™Æ™Ôd™‡–h7ÃAøAú áùõ=6?Eã½/ô|û ƒú7z:>„Çÿý<þ¯úýúßj?å¿þÇéöûþ“«ÿ¾ÁøKøÈ%ŠdOÿÞÈ<,Wþ‡ÿ·ƒïüúCÿß%Ï$sŸÿÃÿ÷‡þåiò>GÈù#ä|‘ò:#ä|Š":#¢:;ˆèŽˆèʤV‘ÑÑÑÑÑÑÑÑÑçIþ×o(¿zHDDDDDFp'.Ñ:ˆR:aAràÁ¬LˆÈù!ÿÿï[ÿ¯Äàiƒ"VƒDÇ)Ê6PáÈê$9C”9C†‡CD¡pE#¦œÖ{i~Úý¯kköDœ4ÉU”8`ƒt!l2G
--End Attach--
i try to read file with streamreader:
string[] lines = System.IO.File.ReadAllLines(#"C:\Users\Davide\Desktop\20041230000D.xmm")
I read line by line the file, and when line is equal "Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary; Length=220096", i read all following lines and write a "filename"(in this case 30085949.tif) file.
But i'm reading strings, not byte data and result file is damaged (now i try with tiff file). Any suggestion for me?
SOLUTION
Thanks for reply. I've adopted this solution: I builded a LineReader extend BinaryReader:
public class LineReader : BinaryReader
{
public LineReader(Stream stream, Encoding encoding)
: base(stream, encoding)
{
}
public int currentPos;
private StringBuilder stringBuffer;
public string ReadLine()
{
currentPos = 0;
char[] buf = new char[1];
stringBuffer = new StringBuilder();
bool lineEndFound = false;
while (base.Read(buf, 0, 1) > 0)
{
currentPos++;
if (buf[0] == Microsoft.VisualBasic.Strings.ChrW(10))
{
lineEndFound = true;
}
else
{
stringBuffer.Append(buf[0]);
}
if (lineEndFound)
{
return stringBuffer.ToString();
}
}
return stringBuffer.ToString();
}
}
Where Microsoft.VisualBasic.Strings.ChrW(10) is a Line Feed.
When i parse my file:
using (LineReader b = new LineReader(File.OpenRead(path), Encoding.Default))
{
int pos = 0;
int length = (int)b.BaseStream.Length;
while (pos < length)
{
string line = b.ReadLine();
pos += (b.currentPos);
if (!beginNextPart)
{
if (line.StartsWith(BEGINATTACH))
{
beginNextPart = true;
}
}
else
{
if (line.StartsWith(ENDATTACH))
{
beginNextPart = false;
}
else
{
if (line.StartsWith("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary; Length="))
{
attachLength = Convert.ToInt32(line.Replace("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary; Length=", ""));
byte[] attachData = b.ReadBytes(attachLength);
pos += (attachLength);
ByteArrayToFile(#"C:\users\davide\desktop\files.tif", attachData);
}
}
}
}
}
I read a byte length from file and i read following n bytes.
Your problem here is that a StreamReader assumes that it is the only thing reading the file, and as a result it reads ahead. Your best bet is to read the file as binary and use the appropriate text encoding to retrieve the string data out of your own buffer.
Since apparently you don't mind reading the entire file into memory, you can start with a:
byte[] buf = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(#"C:\Users\Davide\Desktop\20041230000D.xmm");
Then assuming you're using UTF-8 for your text data:
int offset = 0;
int binaryLength = 0;
while (binaryLength == 0 && offset < buf.Length) {
var eolIdx = Array.IndexOf(offset, 13); // In a UTF-8 stream, byte 13 always represents newline
string line = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buf, offset, eolIdx - offset - 1);
// Process your line appropriately here, and set binaryLength if you expect binary data to follow
offset = eolIdx + 1;
}
// You don't necessarily need to copy binary data out, but just to show where it is:
var binary = new byte[binaryLength];
Buffer.BlockCopy(buf, offset, binary, 0, binaryLength);
You might also want to do a line.TrimEnd('\r'), if you expect Window-style line endings.
Hi i was able to convert a ASCII string to binary using a binarywriter .. as 10101011 . im required back to convert Binary ---> ASCII string .. any idea how to do it ?
This should do the trick... or at least get you started...
public Byte[] GetBytesFromBinaryString(String binary)
{
var list = new List<Byte>();
for (int i = 0; i < binary.Length; i += 8)
{
String t = binary.Substring(i, 8);
list.Add(Convert.ToByte(t, 2));
}
return list.ToArray();
}
Once the binary string has been converted to a byte array, finish off with
Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data);
So...
var data = GetBytesFromBinaryString("010000010100001001000011");
var text = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data);
If you have ASCII charters only you could use Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes and Encoding.ASCII.GetString.
var text = "Test";
var bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(text);
var newText = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(bytes);
Here is complete code for your answer
FileStream iFile = new FileStream(#"c:\test\binary.dat",
FileMode.Open);
long lengthInBytes = iFile.Length;
BinaryReader bin = new BinaryReader(aFile);
byte[] byteArray = bin.ReadBytes((int)lengthInBytes);
System.Text.Encoding encEncoder = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII;
string str = encEncoder.GetString(byteArray);
Take this as a simple example:
public void ByteToString()
{
Byte[] arrByte = { 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0 };
string x = Convert.ToBase64String(arrByte);
}
This linked answer has interesting details about this kind of conversion:
binary file to string
Sometimes instead of using the built in tools it's better to use "custom" code.. try this function:
public string BinaryToString(string binary)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(binary))
throw new ArgumentNullException("binary");
if ((binary.Length % 8) != 0)
throw new ArgumentException("Binary string invalid (must divide by 8)", "binary");
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < binary.Length; i += 8)
{
string section = binary.Substring(i, 8);
int ascii = 0;
try
{
ascii = Convert.ToInt32(section, 2);
}
catch
{
throw new ArgumentException("Binary string contains invalid section: " + section, "binary");
}
builder.Append((char)ascii);
}
return builder.ToString();
}
Tested with 010000010100001001000011 it returned ABC using the "raw" ASCII values.
I have a byte[] array that is loaded from a file that I happen to known contains UTF-8.
In some debugging code, I need to convert it to a string. Is there a one-liner that will do this?
Under the covers it should be just an allocation and a memcopy, so even if it is not implemented, it should be possible.
string result = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(byteArray);
There're at least four different ways doing this conversion.
Encoding's GetString, but you won't be able to get the original bytes back if those bytes have non-ASCII characters.
BitConverter.ToString The output is a "-" delimited string, but there's no .NET built-in method to convert the string back to byte array.
Convert.ToBase64String You can easily convert the output string back to byte array by using Convert.FromBase64String. Note: The output string could contain '+', '/' and '='. If you want to use the string in a URL, you need to explicitly encode it.
HttpServerUtility.UrlTokenEncodeYou can easily convert the output string back to byte array by using HttpServerUtility.UrlTokenDecode. The output string is already URL friendly! The downside is it needs System.Web assembly if your project is not a web project.
A full example:
byte[] bytes = { 130, 200, 234, 23 }; // A byte array contains non-ASCII (or non-readable) characters
string s1 = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes); // ���
byte[] decBytes1 = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(s1); // decBytes1.Length == 10 !!
// decBytes1 not same as bytes
// Using UTF-8 or other Encoding object will get similar results
string s2 = BitConverter.ToString(bytes); // 82-C8-EA-17
String[] tempAry = s2.Split('-');
byte[] decBytes2 = new byte[tempAry.Length];
for (int i = 0; i < tempAry.Length; i++)
decBytes2[i] = Convert.ToByte(tempAry[i], 16);
// decBytes2 same as bytes
string s3 = Convert.ToBase64String(bytes); // gsjqFw==
byte[] decByte3 = Convert.FromBase64String(s3);
// decByte3 same as bytes
string s4 = HttpServerUtility.UrlTokenEncode(bytes); // gsjqFw2
byte[] decBytes4 = HttpServerUtility.UrlTokenDecode(s4);
// decBytes4 same as bytes
A general solution to convert from byte array to string when you don't know the encoding:
static string BytesToStringConverted(byte[] bytes)
{
using (var stream = new MemoryStream(bytes))
{
using (var streamReader = new StreamReader(stream))
{
return streamReader.ReadToEnd();
}
}
}
Definition:
public static string ConvertByteToString(this byte[] source)
{
return source != null ? System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(source) : null;
}
Using:
string result = input.ConvertByteToString();
Converting a byte[] to a string seems simple, but any kind of encoding is likely to mess up the output string. This little function just works without any unexpected results:
private string ToString(byte[] bytes)
{
string response = string.Empty;
foreach (byte b in bytes)
response += (Char)b;
return response;
}
I saw some answers at this post and it's possible to be considered completed base knowledge, because I have a several approaches in C# Programming to resolve the same problem. The only thing that is necessary to be considered is about a difference between pure UTF-8 and UTF-8 with a BOM.
Last week, at my job, I needed to develop one functionality that outputs CSV files with a BOM and other CSV files with pure UTF-8 (without a BOM). Each CSV file encoding type will be consumed by different non-standardized APIs. One API reads UTF-8 with a BOM and the other API reads without a BOM. I needed to research the references about this concept, reading the "What's the difference between UTF-8 and UTF-8 without BOM?" Stack Overflow question, and the Wikipedia article "Byte order mark" to build my approach.
Finally, my C# Programming for both UTF-8 encoding types (with BOM and pure) needed to be similar to this example below:
// For UTF-8 with BOM, equals shared by Zanoni (at top)
string result = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(byteArray);
//for Pure UTF-8 (without B.O.M.)
string result = (new UTF8Encoding(false)).GetString(byteArray);
Using (byte)b.ToString("x2"), Outputs b4b5dfe475e58b67
public static class Ext {
public static string ToHexString(this byte[] hex)
{
if (hex == null) return null;
if (hex.Length == 0) return string.Empty;
var s = new StringBuilder();
foreach (byte b in hex) {
s.Append(b.ToString("x2"));
}
return s.ToString();
}
public static byte[] ToHexBytes(this string hex)
{
if (hex == null) return null;
if (hex.Length == 0) return new byte[0];
int l = hex.Length / 2;
var b = new byte[l];
for (int i = 0; i < l; ++i) {
b[i] = Convert.ToByte(hex.Substring(i * 2, 2), 16);
}
return b;
}
public static bool EqualsTo(this byte[] bytes, byte[] bytesToCompare)
{
if (bytes == null && bytesToCompare == null) return true; // ?
if (bytes == null || bytesToCompare == null) return false;
if (object.ReferenceEquals(bytes, bytesToCompare)) return true;
if (bytes.Length != bytesToCompare.Length) return false;
for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; ++i) {
if (bytes[i] != bytesToCompare[i]) return false;
}
return true;
}
}
There is also class UnicodeEncoding, quite simple in usage:
ByteConverter = new UnicodeEncoding();
string stringDataForEncoding = "My Secret Data!";
byte[] dataEncoded = ByteConverter.GetBytes(stringDataForEncoding);
Console.WriteLine("Data after decoding: {0}", ByteConverter.GetString(dataEncoded));
In addition to the selected answer, if you're using .NET 3.5 or .NET 3.5 CE, you have to specify the index of the first byte to decode, and the number of bytes to decode:
string result = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length);
Alternatively:
var byteStr = Convert.ToBase64String(bytes);
The BitConverter class can be used to convert a byte[] to string.
var convertedString = BitConverter.ToString(byteAttay);
Documentation of BitConverter class can be fount on MSDN.
To my knowledge none of the given answers guarantee correct behavior with null termination. Until someone shows me differently I wrote my own static class for handling this with the following methods:
// Mimics the functionality of strlen() in c/c++
// Needed because niether StringBuilder or Encoding.*.GetString() handle \0 well
static int StringLength(byte[] buffer, int startIndex = 0)
{
int strlen = 0;
while
(
(startIndex + strlen + 1) < buffer.Length // Make sure incrementing won't break any bounds
&& buffer[startIndex + strlen] != 0 // The typical null terimation check
)
{
++strlen;
}
return strlen;
}
// This is messy, but I haven't found a built-in way in c# that guarentees null termination
public static string ParseBytes(byte[] buffer, out int strlen, int startIndex = 0)
{
strlen = StringLength(buffer, startIndex);
byte[] c_str = new byte[strlen];
Array.Copy(buffer, startIndex, c_str, 0, strlen);
return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(c_str);
}
The reason for the startIndex was in the example I was working on specifically I needed to parse a byte[] as an array of null terminated strings. It can be safely ignored in the simple case
A LINQ one-liner for converting a byte array byteArrFilename read from a file to a pure ASCII C-style zero-terminated string would be this: Handy for reading things like file index tables in old archive formats.
String filename = new String(byteArrFilename.TakeWhile(x => x != 0)
.Select(x => x < 128 ? (Char)x : '?').ToArray());
I use '?' as the default character for anything not pure ASCII here, but that can be changed, of course. If you want to be sure you can detect it, just use '\0' instead, since the TakeWhile at the start ensures that a string built this way cannot possibly contain '\0' values from the input source.
Try this console application:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//Encoding _UTF8 = Encoding.UTF8;
string[] _mainString = { "Hello, World!" };
Console.WriteLine("Main String: " + _mainString);
// Convert a string to UTF-8 bytes.
byte[] _utf8Bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(_mainString[0]);
// Convert UTF-8 bytes to a string.
string _stringuUnicode = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(_utf8Bytes);
Console.WriteLine("String Unicode: " + _stringuUnicode);
}
Here is a result where you didn’t have to bother with encoding. I used it in my network class and send binary objects as string with it.
public static byte[] String2ByteArray(string str)
{
char[] chars = str.ToArray();
byte[] bytes = new byte[chars.Length * 2];
for (int i = 0; i < chars.Length; i++)
Array.Copy(BitConverter.GetBytes(chars[i]), 0, bytes, i * 2, 2);
return bytes;
}
public static string ByteArray2String(byte[] bytes)
{
char[] chars = new char[bytes.Length / 2];
for (int i = 0; i < chars.Length; i++)
chars[i] = BitConverter.ToChar(bytes, i * 2);
return new string(chars);
}
string result = ASCIIEncoding.UTF8.GetString(byteArray);