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1381

answers:

4

I have a string that I need to convert to the equivalent array of bytes in .NET.

This ought to be easy but I am having a brain cramp.

+24  A: 

You need to use an encoding to tell .NET what you expect as the output. For example, in UTF-16:

var result = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(text);
Konrad Rudolph
There are a lot more encodings in System.Text.Encoding than just Unicode: make sure you understand which one you need.
Joel Coehoorn
Joel: Hence I wrote “for example”. ;-) But your comment is of course valid.
Konrad Rudolph
:) Trying to help show where the non-UTF16 encodings are- I probably could have worded it better.
Joel Coehoorn
+3  A: 

Like this:

    string test = "text";
    byte[] arr = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(test);
hmemcpy
+4  A: 

What Encoding are you using? Konrad's got it pretty much down, but there are others out there and you could get goofy results with the wrong one:

byte[] bytes = System.Text.Encoding.XXX.GetBytes(text)

Where XXX can be:

ASCII
BigEndianUnicode
Default
Unicode
UTF32
UTF7
UTF8
swilliams
+9  A: 

First work out which encoding you want: you need to know a bit about Unicode first.

Next work out which System.Text.Encoding that corresponds to. My Core .NET refcard describes most of the common ones, and how to get an instance (e.g. by a static property of Encoding or by calling a Encoding.GetEncoding.

Finally, work out whether you want all the bytes at once (which is the easiest way of working - call Encoding.GetBytes(string) once and you're done) or whether you need to break it into chunks - in which case you'll want to use Encoding.GetEncoder and then encode a bit at a time. The encoder takes care of keeping the state between calls, in case you need to break off half way through a character, for example.

Jon Skeet