Encode and Decode a Base64 String in C#
-
Encode a String to a Base64 String With the
Convert.ToBase64String()Method in C -
Decode a String From a Base64 String With the
Convert.FromBase64String()Method in C
This tutorial will discuss methods to encode and decode a base64 string in C#.
Encode a String to a Base64 String With the Convert.ToBase64String() Method in C
The Convert class can convert one base data type to another base data type in C#. The Convert.ToBase64String() method converts an array of bytes to a base64 string variable in C#. To convert a string variable to a base64 string, we must first convert that string to an array of bytes. The Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes() method is converts a string variable to an array of bytes in C#. The following code example shows us how we can encode a string variable to a base64 string with the Convert.ToBase64String() function in C#.
using System;
using System.Text;
namespace encode_and_decode_base64_string
{
class Program
{
public static string Base64Encode(string plainText)
{
var plainTextBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plainText);
return System.Convert.ToBase64String(plainTextBytes);
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string original = "This is a string";
Console.WriteLine("Original String = " + original);
string base64 = Base64Encode(original);
Console.WriteLine("Encoded String = "+base64);
}
}
}
Output:
Original String = This is a string
Encoded String = VGhpcyBpcyBhIHN0cmluZw==
We encoded the string variable original with the value This is a string to the base64 string base64 with the value VGhpcyBpcyBhIHN0cmluZw==. We first converted the string plainText to the bytes array plainTextBytes with the Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plainText) function. We encoded the bytes array plainTextBytes to the base64 string with the Convert.ToBase64String(plainTextBytes) function.
Decode a String From a Base64 String With the Convert.FromBase64String() Method in C
The Convert.FromBase64String() method can convert a base64 string variable to an array of bytes in C#. To convert a base64 encoded string to a standard string variable, we have to convert the array of bytes returned by the Convert.FromBase64String() method to a string variable using the Encoding.UTF8.GetString() method in C#. The following code example shows us how to decode a base64 string to a string variable with the Convert.FromBase64String() function in C#.
using System;
using System.Text;
namespace encode_and_decode_base64_string
{
class Program
{
public static string Base64Decode(string base64EncodedData)
{
var base64EncodedBytes = System.Convert.FromBase64String(base64EncodedData);
return System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(base64EncodedBytes);
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string base64 = "VGhpcyBpcyBhIHN0cmluZw==";
Console.WriteLine("Encoded String = "+base64);
string original = Base64Decode(base64);
Console.WriteLine("Decoded String = "+original);
}
}
}
Output:
Encoded String = VGhpcyBpcyBhIHN0cmluZw==
Decoded String = This is a string
We decoded the base64 string base64 with the value VGhpcyBpcyBhIHN0cmluZw== to the string variable original with the value This is a string. We first converted the base64EncodedData string to the bytes array base64EncodedBytes with the Convert.FromBase64String(base64EncodedData) function. We converted the bytes array base64EncodedBytes to the string variable original with the Encoding.UTF8.GetString(base64EncodedBytes) function.
