String from byte array doesn't get trimmed in C#?

Question

I have a byte array similar to this (16 bytes):

71 77 65 72 74 79 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

I use this to convert it to a string and trim the ending spaces:

ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(data).Trim();

I get the string fine, however it still has all the ending spaces. So I get something like "qwerty.........." (where dots are spaces due to StackOverflow).

What am I doing wrong?

I also tried to use .TrimEnd() and to use an UTF8 encoding, but it doesn't change anything.

Thanks in advance :)

Does your byte array end in 00 bytes or 20 bytes? A space is 0x20 not 0x00. — Will Bickford
– Will Bickford, Commented Sep 9, 2009 at 23:14
If your byte array comes from a MemoryStream, make sure that you call ToArray() and not GetBuffer(), as GetBuffer will include "unfilled" data, resulting in all those `\0's — Matt Baker
– Matt Baker, Commented Dec 15, 2014 at 15:16

Gorpik · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-30 11:55:39Z

33

You have to do TrimEnd(new char[] { (char)0 }); to fix this. It's not spaces - it's actually null characters that are converted weirdly. I had this issue too.

edited Dec 30, 2015 at 11:55

Gorpik

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answered Sep 9, 2009 at 23:14

Walt W

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4 Comments

dtb Over a year ago

null terminators have nothing to do with ASCII encoding. It seems @Lazlo has a fixed-sized byte array that holds a variable-lengthed ASCII encoded string, so the string has to be padded with null terminators to match the array size

Lazlo Over a year ago

Thank you :) I thought it was something like this, but didn't dare trying.

Nikos C. Over a year ago

Actually, you can just do .TrimEnd('\0').

Hi-Angel Over a year ago

@dtb could you please elaborate a bit more? Why should the resulting string be matched with array size? Zeroes aren't ASCII characters, so logically these should be ignored, a.k.a. trimmed off, and the string should be shorter than the array.

x0n · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-13 18:59:35Z

23

They're not really spaces:

System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(byteArray).TrimEnd('\0')

...should do the trick.

-Oisin

edited Sep 13, 2009 at 18:59

answered Sep 9, 2009 at 23:16

x0n

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Comments

dtb · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-09 23:16:38Z

8

Trim by default removes only whitespace, where whitespace is defined by char.IsWhitespace.

'\0' is a control character, not whitespace.

You can specify which characters to trim using the Trim(char[]) overload:

string result = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data).Trim(new char[] { '\0' });

answered Sep 9, 2009 at 23:16

dtb

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Comments

RepDbg · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-25 22:59:59Z

1

Why try to create the string first and trim it second? This could add a lot of overhead (if the byte[] is large).

You can specify index and count in the GetString(byte[] bytes, int index, int count) overload.

int count = data.Count(bt => bt != 0); // find the first null
string result = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data, 0, count); // Get only the characters you want

answered Jul 25, 2011 at 22:59

RepDbg

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Comments

Ambrose Leung · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-25 20:53:07Z

0

In powershell, you can do this:

$yourString.TrimEnd(0x00)

answered Mar 25, 2014 at 20:53

Ambrose Leung

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