Encoding.GetBytes Method (array<Char[])
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When overridden in a derived class, encodes all the characters in the specified character array into a sequence of bytes.
Namespace: System.Text
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
Syntax
'Declaration
Public Overridable Function GetBytes ( _
chars As Char() _
) As Byte()
public virtual byte[] GetBytes(
char[] chars
)
Parameters
- chars
Type: array<System.Char[]
The character array containing the characters to encode.
Return Value
Type: array<System.Byte[]
A byte array containing the results of encoding the specified set of characters.
Exceptions
| Exception | Condition |
|---|---|
| ArgumentNullException | chars is nulla null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic). |
| EncoderFallbackException | A fallback occurred (see Understanding Encodings for complete explanation). |
Remarks
If the data to be converted is available only in sequential blocks (such as data read from a stream) or if the amount of data is so large that it needs to be divided into smaller blocks, the application should use the Decoder or the Encoder provided by the GetDecoder method or the GetEncoder method, respectively, of a derived class.
For a discussion of programming considerations for use of this method, see the Encoding class description.
Examples
The following code example determines the number of bytes required to encode a character array, encodes the characters, and displays the resulting bytes.
Imports System.Text
Public Class Example
Private Shared outputBlock As System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock
Public Shared Sub Demo(ByVal outBlock As System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock)
outputBlock = outBlock
' The characters to encode:
' Latin Small Letter Z (U+007A)
' Latin Small Letter A (U+0061)
' Combining Breve (U+0306)
' Latin Small Letter AE With Acute (U+01FD)
' Greek Small Letter Beta (U+03B2)
' a high-surrogate value (U+D8FF)
' a low-surrogate value (U+DCFF)
Dim myChars() As Char = {"z"c, "a"c, ChrW(&H306), ChrW(&H1FD), ChrW(&H3B2), ChrW(&HD8FF), ChrW(&HDCFF)}
' Get different encodings.
Dim u8 As Encoding = Encoding.UTF8
Dim u16LE As Encoding = Encoding.Unicode
Dim u16BE As Encoding = Encoding.BigEndianUnicode
' Encode the entire array, and print out the counts and the resulting bytes.
PrintCountsAndBytes(myChars, u8)
PrintCountsAndBytes(myChars, u16LE)
PrintCountsAndBytes(myChars, u16BE)
End Sub
Public Shared Sub PrintCountsAndBytes(ByVal chars() As Char, ByVal enc As Encoding)
' Display the name of the encoding used.
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("{0,-30} :", enc.ToString())
' Display the exact byte count.
Dim iBC As Integer = enc.GetByteCount(chars)
outputBlock.Text += String.Format(" {0,-3}", iBC)
' Display the maximum byte count.
Dim iMBC As Integer = enc.GetMaxByteCount(chars.Length)
outputBlock.Text += String.Format(" {0,-3} :", iMBC)
' Encode the array of chars.
Dim bytes As Byte() = enc.GetBytes(chars)
' Display all the encoded bytes.
PrintHexBytes(bytes)
End Sub
Public Shared Sub PrintHexBytes(ByVal bytes() As Byte)
If bytes Is Nothing OrElse bytes.Length = 0 Then
outputBlock.Text &= "<none>" & vbCrLf
Else
Dim i As Integer
For i = 0 To bytes.Length - 1
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("{0:X2} ", bytes(i))
Next i
outputBlock.Text &= vbCrLf
End If
End Sub
End Class
' This example produces the following output.
' System.Text.UTF8Encoding : 12 24 :7A 61 CC 86 C7 BD CE B2 F1 8F B3 BF
' System.Text.UnicodeEncoding : 14 16 :7A 00 61 00 06 03 FD 01 B2 03 FF D8 FF DC
' System.Text.UnicodeEncoding : 14 16 :00 7A 00 61 03 06 01 FD 03 B2 D8 FF DC FF
using System;
using System.Text;
public class Example
{
private static System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock outputBlock;
public static void Demo(System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock outBlock)
{
outputBlock = outBlock;
// The characters to encode:
// Latin Small Letter Z (U+007A)
// Latin Small Letter A (U+0061)
// Combining Breve (U+0306)
// Latin Small Letter AE With Acute (U+01FD)
// Greek Small Letter Beta (U+03B2)
// a high-surrogate value (U+D8FF)
// a low-surrogate value (U+DCFF)
char[] myChars = new char[] { 'z', 'a', '\u0306', '\u01FD', '\u03B2', '\uD8FF', '\uDCFF' };
// Get different encodings.
Encoding u8 = Encoding.UTF8;
Encoding u16LE = Encoding.Unicode;
Encoding u16BE = Encoding.BigEndianUnicode;
// Encode the entire array, and print out the counts and the resulting bytes.
PrintCountsAndBytes(myChars, u8);
PrintCountsAndBytes(myChars, u16LE);
PrintCountsAndBytes(myChars, u16BE);
}
public static void PrintCountsAndBytes(char[] chars, Encoding enc)
{
// Display the name of the encoding used.
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("{0,-30} :", enc.ToString());
// Display the exact byte count.
int iBC = enc.GetByteCount(chars);
outputBlock.Text += String.Format(" {0,-3}", iBC);
// Display the maximum byte count.
int iMBC = enc.GetMaxByteCount(chars.Length);
outputBlock.Text += String.Format(" {0,-3} :", iMBC);
// Encode the array of chars.
byte[] bytes = enc.GetBytes(chars);
// Display all the encoded bytes.
PrintHexBytes(bytes);
}
public static void PrintHexBytes(byte[] bytes)
{
if ((bytes == null) || (bytes.Length == 0))
outputBlock.Text += "<none>" + "\n";
else
{
for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++)
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("{0:X2} ", bytes[i]);
outputBlock.Text += "\n";
}
}
}
/*
This code produces the following output.
System.Text.UTF8Encoding : 12 24 :7A 61 CC 86 C7 BD CE B2 F1 8F B3 BF
System.Text.UnicodeEncoding : 14 16 :7A 00 61 00 06 03 FD 01 B2 03 FF D8 FF DC
System.Text.UnicodeEncoding : 14 16 :00 7A 00 61 03 06 01 FD 03 B2 D8 FF DC FF
*/
Version Information
Silverlight
Supported in: 5, 4, 3
Silverlight for Windows Phone
Supported in: Windows Phone OS 7.1, Windows Phone OS 7.0
XNA Framework
Supported in: Xbox 360, Windows Phone OS 7.0
Platforms
For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.
See Also