C# Convert String to Byte Array

Convert a string to a byte array and then reverse the conversion.

String, byte array. A string can be converted into a byte array. Strings are stored with two bytes per character. ASCII only allows one byte per character.Strings

Conversion problems. With some ASCII conversions, we can lose data. With Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes, and GetString, we perform this conversion.

First example. This program uses a constant string literal and then converts that to a byte array. The GetBytes method will cause an incorrect conversion if the input string is not ASCII.String Literal

Main: The character representations from the input string were first converted to fit in one byte elements each.

Info: We see that the integer 68 corresponds to the uppercase letter "D". This is the standard.

Then: In the final loop, we examine each byte of the resulting byte array. We see its numeric and character-based representation.

Foreach Byte

C# program that uses Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes method using System; using System.Text; class Program { static void Main() { // Input string. const string input = "The Dev Codes"; // Invoke GetBytes method. // ... You can store this array as a field! byte[] array = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(input); // Loop through contents of the array. foreach (byte element in array) { Console.WriteLine("{0} = {1}", element, (char)element); } } } Output 68 = D 111 = o 116 = t 32 = 78 = N 101 = e 116 = t 32 = 80 = P 101 = e 114 = r 108 = l 115 = s

Example 2. A byte array can be converted into a string. This program allocates an array of bytes. These represent characters in ASCII. Next the ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString method is used.

Tip: You will need to ensure System.Text is included to compile the program. Please add the using System.Text directive.

Note: We see that the byte array does not need to contain the "\0" character to be converted to a string correctly.

Space: The space character in the example is encoded as the byte 32. We provide more information on the char type.

Char

C# program that converts byte array to string using System; using System.Text; class Program { static void Main() { byte[] array = { 68, 111, 116, 32, 78, 101, 116, 32, 80, 101, 114, 108, 115 }; string value = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(array); Console.WriteLine(value); } } Output The Dev Codes

Benchmark, memory. Suppose we want to "compress" ASCII strings in memory. We can convert strings to byte arrays with no loss of data, and this reduces total memory usage.GC.Collect

Version 1: This code allocates an array of 10,000 strings. The memory this requires is measured.

Version 2: Here we change each string into a byte array. And the memory of this array is measured.

Byte Array

Result: The string[] required about 480,000 bytes. The byte[][] (a jagged array of byte arrays) required 320,000 bytes.

Jagged Arrays

Tip: You can convert the byte arrays back into strings by calling ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString.

C# program that changes string representation using System; using System.IO; using System.Text; class Program { static void Main() { // Version 1: get string array. long a = GC.GetTotalMemory(true); string[] array = Get(); long b = GC.GetTotalMemory(true); array[0] = null; // Version 2: get byte arrays. long c = GC.GetTotalMemory(true); byte[][] array2 = Compress(Get()); long d = GC.GetTotalMemory(true); array2[0] = null; Console.WriteLine(a); Console.WriteLine(b); Console.WriteLine(c); Console.WriteLine(d); } static string[] Get() { string[] output = new string[10000]; for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++) { output[i] = Path.GetRandomFileName(); } return output; } static byte[][] Compress(string[] array) { byte[][] output = new byte[array.Length][]; for (int i = 0; i < array.Length; i++) { output[i] = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(array[i]); } return output; } } Output 39128 479800 39784 320056

A summary. It is possible to convert strings and byte arrays. This conversion may cause some data loss if you are using some characters that are not in the ASCII character set.

Because of problems, be careful when using this method in places where not necessary. There is a performance cost to these conversions.

The Dev Codes

.Net

.NET Array Dictionary List String 2D Async DataTable Dates DateTime Enum File For Foreach Format IEnumerable If IndexOf Lambda LINQ Parse Path Process Property Regex Replace Sort Split Static StringBuilder Substring Switch Tuple

Java

Core Array ArrayList HashMap String 2D Cast Character Console Deque Duplicates File For Format HashSet If IndexOf Lambda Math ParseInt Process Random Regex Replace Sort Split StringBuilder Substring Switch Vector While

TheDeveloperBlog.com

C# Convert String to Byte Array

Related Links:

.Net

Java

Related Links