Conversion from byte array to base64 and back

Question

I am trying to     Generate a byte array   Convert that byte array to base64 Convert that base64 string back to a byte array     I ve tried out a few solutions  for example those in this question   For some reason the initial and final byte arrays do not match  Here is the code used   using  RNGCryptoServiceProvider rng   new RNGCryptoServiceProvider                   byte   originalArray   new byte 32            rng GetBytes key            string temp inBase64   Convert ToBase64String originalArray            byte   temp backToBytes   Encoding UTF8 GetBytes temp inBase64           My questions are    Why do  originalArray  and  temp backToBytes  not match   originalArray has length of 32  temp backToBytes has a length of 44  but their values are also different  Is it possible to convert back and forth  and if so  how do I accomplish this

User · Accepted Answer

The reason the encoded array is longer by about a quarter is that base-64 encoding uses only six bits out of every byte; that is its reason of existence - to encode arbitrary data, possibly with zeros and other non-printable characters, in a way suitable for exchange through ASCII-only channels, such as e-mail.

The way you get your original array back is by using Convert.FromBase64String:

 byte[] temp_backToBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(temp_inBase64);

[c#] Conversion from byte array to base64 and back

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