Convert Byte Array to String and Vice Versa in C#

Convert Byte Array to String and Vice Versa using BitConverter

You can convert byte array to string using BitConverter class. It returns a string of hexadecimal pairs separated by hyphens(–), where each pair represents the corresponding element in value; for example, “6C-2F-3C-00”.

Convert Byte Array to String:

private static void ConvertByteArrayToString()
{
    byte[] byteArray = new byte[] { 0x48, 0x65, 0x6C, 0x6C, 0x6F };

    string byteString = System.BitConverter.ToString(byteArray);

   //Result: 48-65-6C-6C-6F
}

Convert String to Byte Array:

There is no built-in function a convert string to byte array that was converted from byte array by BitConverter. But you can use below method to convert that string into Byte[].

private static void ConvertStringToByteArray()
{
    string byteString = "48-65-6C-6C-6F";
    string[] strArray = byteString.Split('-');
    byte[] byteArray = new byte[strArray.Length];
    for (int i = 0; i < strArray.Length; i++)
    {
        byteArray[i] = Convert.ToByte(strArray[i], 16);
    }
}

Convert Byte Array to String and Vice Versa using Encoding in C#

You can convert byte array to string and string to byte[] using Encoding class. It returns a actual string value from byte array. Use either Encoding.UTF8 or Encoding.ASCII.

Convert Byte Array to String:

private static void ConvertByteArrayToString()
{
    byte[] byteArray = new byte[] { 0x48, 0x65, 0x6C, 0x6C, 0x6F };

    string byteString = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(byteArray);

   //Result: Hello
}

Convert String to Byte Array:

private static void ConvertStringToByteArray()
{
    string byteString = "Hello";

    byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(byteString);
}