Convert a byte array in a datatable column to string?

Question

I have a datatable customerTbl and I step through the rows

foreach (DataRow row in customerTbl.Rows)
{
         string CustomerID = row["Customer ID"].ToString();
}

However, the column Customer ID returns byte[]. How can I convert this to a string (CustomerID)?

I tried something like

string CustomerID = Convert.ToBase64String(row["Customer ID"]);

but it obviously doesn't work

Thanks in advance

What is the customer ID supposed to look like? Is it text? Or just a numeric thing? Convert.ToBase64String, does as it says on the package: it converts to a base64 string. Why do you want to see a string? What for? — R. Martinho Fernandes
– R. Martinho Fernandes, Commented Nov 22, 2010 at 5:30
customer id is text and numeric, in the new database we have proper id's but I still need to ship this over for some other referencing. The other database only accepts strings in the column where I want this ID. — Morgan
– Morgan, Commented Nov 22, 2010 at 5:31

Jeff Mercado · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-22 05:42:55Z

3

Depending on the encoding of the bytes, you'd need the correct Encoding object to perform the conversion. Assuming it is ASCII, you can do this:

string customerID = Encoding.ASCII.GetString((byte[])row["Customer ID"]);

If in a different encoding (UTF8, UTF16, etc.), use the appropriate one.

edited Nov 22, 2010 at 5:42

answered Nov 22, 2010 at 5:33

Jeff Mercado

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3 Comments

Morgan Over a year ago

Hi Jeff, with that I get "Error 1 'System.Data.DataRow' does not contain a definition for 'Field' and no extension method 'Field' accepting a first argument of type 'System.Data.DataRow' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)"

Jeff Mercado Over a year ago

You'll need a cast then instead of using the Field() extension method. Since you've added that it's C#2.0, extension methods are not available.

Morgan Over a year ago

Ok thanks, it works now. Sorry I forgot to add 2.0 from the beginning.

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