Converting a String to a Byte array

BrianWren · December 15th, 2006, 05:23 PM

This flew fine in VB6:

Code:

    Dim Text As String
    Dim abytText() As Byte

    Text = "Some Text"
    abytText = InText   ' abytText is now an array of bytes holding the text.

But in VB.NET â05, using

Code:

    Dim data As String = "Some Stuff"
    Dim aByteText() As Byte = data

causes a blue warning squiggle under the reference to the variable data. When I hover over it, the tip says, "Value of type 'String' cannot be converted to '1-dimensional array of Byte'."

I believe that if I used a conversion function to type Byte, it would argue because a string can't be recognized as a single-byte value. As they used to say in commercials for Jiff (gender notwithstanding), âWhatâs a mother to do?â

BrianWren · December 15th, 2006, 05:50 PM

Indeed:

Code:

    Dim aByteText() As Byte = CType(data.ToCharArray, Byte)
                                    Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯Â¯

"Value of type '1-dimensional array of char' cannot be converted to 'Byte'."

maxl · February 20th, 2007, 11:03 PM

You could use:

Imports system.text

Dim aByteText() as Byte = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data)

Or UTF7, UTF32, Unicode...its all under the Encoding class.