Base32 Decoding
I have a base32 string which I need to convert to a byte array. And I'm having trouble finding a conversion method in the .NET framework. I can find methods for base64 but not for base32.
Convert.FromBase64String – something like this for base32 would be perfect.
Is there such a method in the framework or do I have to roll my own?
Solution 1:
I had a need for a base32 encoder/decoder, so I spent a couple hours this afternoon throwing this together. I believe it conforms to the standards listed here: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4648#section-6.
public class Base32Encoding
{
public static byte[] ToBytes(string input)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(input))
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("input");
}
input = input.TrimEnd('='); //remove padding characters
int byteCount = input.Length * 5 / 8; //this must be TRUNCATED
byte[] returnArray = new byte[byteCount];
byte curByte = 0, bitsRemaining = 8;
int mask = 0, arrayIndex = 0;
foreach (char c in input)
{
int cValue = CharToValue(c);
if (bitsRemaining > 5)
{
mask = cValue << (bitsRemaining - 5);
curByte = (byte)(curByte | mask);
bitsRemaining -= 5;
}
else
{
mask = cValue >> (5 - bitsRemaining);
curByte = (byte)(curByte | mask);
returnArray[arrayIndex++] = curByte;
curByte = (byte)(cValue << (3 + bitsRemaining));
bitsRemaining += 3;
}
}
//if we didn't end with a full byte
if (arrayIndex != byteCount)
{
returnArray[arrayIndex] = curByte;
}
return returnArray;
}
public static string ToString(byte[] input)
{
if (input == null || input.Length == 0)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("input");
}
int charCount = (int)Math.Ceiling(input.Length / 5d) * 8;
char[] returnArray = new char[charCount];
byte nextChar = 0, bitsRemaining = 5;
int arrayIndex = 0;
foreach (byte b in input)
{
nextChar = (byte)(nextChar | (b >> (8 - bitsRemaining)));
returnArray[arrayIndex++] = ValueToChar(nextChar);
if (bitsRemaining < 4)
{
nextChar = (byte)((b >> (3 - bitsRemaining)) & 31);
returnArray[arrayIndex++] = ValueToChar(nextChar);
bitsRemaining += 5;
}
bitsRemaining -= 3;
nextChar = (byte)((b << bitsRemaining) & 31);
}
//if we didn't end with a full char
if (arrayIndex != charCount)
{
returnArray[arrayIndex++] = ValueToChar(nextChar);
while (arrayIndex != charCount) returnArray[arrayIndex++] = '='; //padding
}
return new string(returnArray);
}
private static int CharToValue(char c)
{
int value = (int)c;
//65-90 == uppercase letters
if (value < 91 && value > 64)
{
return value - 65;
}
//50-55 == numbers 2-7
if (value < 56 && value > 49)
{
return value - 24;
}
//97-122 == lowercase letters
if (value < 123 && value > 96)
{
return value - 97;
}
throw new ArgumentException("Character is not a Base32 character.", "c");
}
private static char ValueToChar(byte b)
{
if (b < 26)
{
return (char)(b + 65);
}
if (b < 32)
{
return (char)(b + 24);
}
throw new ArgumentException("Byte is not a value Base32 value.", "b");
}
}
Solution 2:
Check this FromBase32String implementation for .NET found here.
Edit: The above link was dead; you can find an archived copy at archive.org
The actual code read:
using System;
using System.Text;
public sealed class Base32 {
// the valid chars for the encoding
private static string ValidChars = "QAZ2WSX3" + "EDC4RFV5" + "TGB6YHN7" + "UJM8K9LP";
/// <summary>
/// Converts an array of bytes to a Base32-k string.
/// </summary>
public static string ToBase32String(byte[] bytes) {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); // holds the base32 chars
byte index;
int hi = 5;
int currentByte = 0;
while (currentByte < bytes.Length) {
// do we need to use the next byte?
if (hi > 8) {
// get the last piece from the current byte, shift it to the right
// and increment the byte counter
index = (byte)(bytes[currentByte++] >> (hi - 5));
if (currentByte != bytes.Length) {
// if we are not at the end, get the first piece from
// the next byte, clear it and shift it to the left
index = (byte)(((byte)(bytes[currentByte] << (16 - hi)) >> 3) | index);
}
hi -= 3;
} else if(hi == 8) {
index = (byte)(bytes[currentByte++] >> 3);
hi -= 3;
} else {
// simply get the stuff from the current byte
index = (byte)((byte)(bytes[currentByte] << (8 - hi)) >> 3);
hi += 5;
}
sb.Append(ValidChars[index]);
}
return sb.ToString();
}
/// <summary>
/// Converts a Base32-k string into an array of bytes.
/// </summary>
/// <exception cref="System.ArgumentException">
/// Input string <paramref name="s">s</paramref> contains invalid Base32-k characters.
/// </exception>
public static byte[] FromBase32String(string str) {
int numBytes = str.Length * 5 / 8;
byte[] bytes = new Byte[numBytes];
// all UPPERCASE chars
str = str.ToUpper();
int bit_buffer;
int currentCharIndex;
int bits_in_buffer;
if (str.Length < 3) {
bytes[0] = (byte)(ValidChars.IndexOf(str[0]) | ValidChars.IndexOf(str[1]) << 5);
return bytes;
}
bit_buffer = (ValidChars.IndexOf(str[0]) | ValidChars.IndexOf(str[1]) << 5);
bits_in_buffer = 10;
currentCharIndex = 2;
for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++) {
bytes[i] = (byte)bit_buffer;
bit_buffer >>= 8;
bits_in_buffer -= 8;
while (bits_in_buffer < 8 && currentCharIndex < str.Length) {
bit_buffer |= ValidChars.IndexOf(str[currentCharIndex++]) << bits_in_buffer;
bits_in_buffer += 5;
}
}
return bytes;
}
}
Solution 3:
Here are my functions for encoding and decoding. I feel that they are much shorter and concise than the other suggestions. So if you need a small one, try these.
public static string BytesToBase32(byte[] bytes) {
const string alphabet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ234567";
string output = "";
for (int bitIndex = 0; bitIndex < bytes.Length * 8; bitIndex += 5) {
int dualbyte = bytes[bitIndex / 8] << 8;
if (bitIndex / 8 + 1 < bytes.Length)
dualbyte |= bytes[bitIndex / 8 + 1];
dualbyte = 0x1f & (dualbyte >> (16 - bitIndex % 8 - 5));
output += alphabet[dualbyte];
}
return output;
}
public static byte[] Base32ToBytes(string base32) {
const string alphabet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ234567";
List<byte> output = new List<byte>();
char[] bytes = base32.ToCharArray();
for (int bitIndex = 0; bitIndex < base32.Length * 5; bitIndex += 8) {
int dualbyte = alphabet.IndexOf(bytes[bitIndex / 5]) << 10;
if (bitIndex / 5 + 1 < bytes.Length)
dualbyte |= alphabet.IndexOf(bytes[bitIndex / 5 + 1]) << 5;
if (bitIndex / 5 + 2 < bytes.Length)
dualbyte |= alphabet.IndexOf(bytes[bitIndex / 5 + 2]);
dualbyte = 0xff & (dualbyte >> (15 - bitIndex % 5 - 8));
output.Add((byte)(dualbyte));
}
return output.ToArray();
}