Base 64 encode and decode example code

Does anyone know how to decode and encode a string in Base64 using the Base64. I am using the following code, but it's not working.

String source = "password"; 
byte[] byteArray = source.getBytes("UTF-16"); 
Base64 bs = new Base64(); 
//bs.encodeBytes(byteArray); 
System.out.println( bs.encodeBytes(byteArray)); 
//bs.decode(bs.encodeBytes(byteArray));
System.out.println(bs.decode(bs.encodeBytes(byteArray)));

First:

  • Choose an encoding. UTF-8 is generally a good choice; stick to an encoding which will definitely be valid on both sides. It would be rare to use something other than UTF-8 or UTF-16.

Transmitting end:

  • Encode the string to bytes (e.g. text.getBytes(encodingName))
  • Encode the bytes to base64 using the Base64 class
  • Transmit the base64

Receiving end:

  • Receive the base64
  • Decode the base64 to bytes using the Base64 class
  • Decode the bytes to a string (e.g. new String(bytes, encodingName))

So something like:

// Sending side
byte[] data = text.getBytes("UTF-8");
String base64 = Base64.encodeToString(data, Base64.DEFAULT);

// Receiving side
byte[] data = Base64.decode(base64, Base64.DEFAULT);
String text = new String(data, "UTF-8");

Or with StandardCharsets:

// Sending side
byte[] data = text.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
String base64 = Base64.encodeToString(data, Base64.DEFAULT);

// Receiving side
byte[] data = Base64.decode(base64, Base64.DEFAULT);
String text = new String(data, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);

To anyone else who ended up here while searching for info on how to decode a string encoded with Base64.encodeBytes(), here was my solution:

// encode
String ps = "techPass";
String tmp = Base64.encodeBytes(ps.getBytes());

// decode
String ps2 = "dGVjaFBhC3M=";
byte[] tmp2 = Base64.decode(ps2); 
String val2 = new String(tmp2, "UTF-8"); 

Also, I'm supporting older versions of Android so I'm using Robert Harder's Base64 library from http://iharder.net/base64