How to convert a String to Bytearray

How can I convert a string in bytearray using JavaScript. Output should be equivalent of the below C# code.

UnicodeEncoding encoding = new UnicodeEncoding();
byte[] bytes = encoding.GetBytes(AnyString);

As UnicodeEncoding is by default of UTF-16 with Little-Endianness.

Edit: I have a requirement to match the bytearray generated client side with the one generated at server side using the above C# code.


Solution 1:

If you are looking for a solution that works in node.js, you can use this:

var myBuffer = [];
var str = 'Stack Overflow';
var buffer = new Buffer(str, 'utf16le');
for (var i = 0; i < buffer.length; i++) {
    myBuffer.push(buffer[i]);
}

console.log(myBuffer);

Solution 2:

In C# running this

UnicodeEncoding encoding = new UnicodeEncoding();
byte[] bytes = encoding.GetBytes("Hello");

Will create an array with

72,0,101,0,108,0,108,0,111,0

byte array

For a character which the code is greater than 255 it will look like this

byte array

If you want a very similar behavior in JavaScript you can do this (v2 is a bit more robust solution, while the original version will only work for 0x00 ~ 0xff)

var str = "Hello竜";
var bytes = []; // char codes
var bytesv2 = []; // char codes

for (var i = 0; i < str.length; ++i) {
  var code = str.charCodeAt(i);
  
  bytes = bytes.concat([code]);
  
  bytesv2 = bytesv2.concat([code & 0xff, code / 256 >>> 0]);
}

// 72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 31452
console.log('bytes', bytes.join(', '));

// 72, 0, 101, 0, 108, 0, 108, 0, 111, 0, 220, 122
console.log('bytesv2', bytesv2.join(', '));