Converting a string to a byte array and then changing back will sometimes wont return the same string:
RandomNumberGenerator gen = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider();
byte[] randomBytes = new byte[32];
gen.GetBytes(randomBytes);
In some cases (or any kind of encoding other than unicode):
randomBytes != Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(Encoding.Unicode.GetString(randomBytes));
I'd like to know how to do this method and get the same result for sure. Thanks in advance
Probably, you are not looking for a text encoding but a serialization format. Text encodings are meant for text. The bytes you are processing are random bytes.
Does Base64 (Convert.ToBase64String) work for you?
You could also jam the bytes into chars (new string(myBytes.Select(b => (char)b).ToArray())). This will produce unreadable strings that are prone to being mangled by other systems. Likely not the right path.
Convert.ToBase64String returns a string. I need to convert the string to byte[] and back. I'm using the NetworkStream class to transmit strings and it requires a byte[].
Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(Encoding.Unicode.GetString(randomBytes)) will sometimes be different from randomBytes. I have no desire to work with random data. My input is a string that I need to send with NetworkStream. Goes something like this: input(string) => encryption => Send (NetworkStream) and then Recieve (NetworkStream) => decryption => put string to use. The byte[] is going through fine but since Encoding changes it the decryption doesn't work.Arbitrary byte array does not necessary encodes a valid Unicode string (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16 for details), e.g.
byte[] before = new byte[] { 0xA6, 0xDD };
byte[] after = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(Encoding.Unicode.GetString(before));
if (!before.SequenceEqual(after))
Console.Write(string.Join(Environment.NewLine,
$"before: {string.Join(" ", before.Select(b => b.ToString("x2")))}",
$"after: {string.Join(" ", after.Select(b => b.ToString("x2")))}"));
Outcome:
before: a6 dd
after: fd ff
If you want to generate these strings you can modify your code into
while (true) {
using (RandomNumberGenerator gen = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider()) {
byte[] randomBytes = new byte[32];
gen.GetBytes(randomBytes);
byte[] after = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(Encoding.Unicode.GetString(randomBytes));
if (!randomBytes.SequenceEqual(after)) {
Console.Write(string.Join(" ", randomBytes) +
Environment.NewLine +
string.Join(" ", after));
break;
}
}
}
Possible outcome:
166 8 99 175 188 233 240 219 64 143 26 87 157 209 205 219 27 169 239 67 99 170 172 226 254 56 168 168 64 222 178 15
166 8 99 175 188 233 253 255 64 143 26 87 157 209 253 255 27 169 239 67 99 170 172 226 254 56 168 168 253 255 178 15
^
Difference
Please, note that we should compare arrays with SequenceEqual.
If you want to encode an array, you can do it with a help of string.Join:
byte[] array = ...
// Something like "166 8 99 175 188 233 240 219 ... 64 222 178 15"
string encoded = string.Join(" ", array);
byte[] back = encoded
.Split(' ')
.Select(item => byte.Parse(item))
.ToArray();
!=to compare byte arrays?