ASCIIEncoding Class

Definition

Represents an ASCII character encoding of Unicode characters.

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComVisible(true)]
public class ASCIIEncoding : System.Text.Encoding
Inheritance
ASCIIEncoding
Attributes

Inherited Members

System.Object

System.Text.Encoding

Examples

The following example demonstrates how to encode Unicode characters into ASCII. Notice the loss of data that occurs when your application uses ASCIIEncoding to encode Unicode characters outside of the ASCII range.

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Collections;
using namespace System::Text;
int main()
{
   
   // The encoding.
   ASCIIEncoding^ ascii = gcnew ASCIIEncoding;
   
   // A Unicode string with two characters outside the ASCII code range.
   String^ unicodeString = L"This Unicode String* contains two characters with codes outside the ASCII code range, Pi (\u03a0) and Sigma (\u03a3).";
   Console::WriteLine( "Original String*:" );
   Console::WriteLine( unicodeString );
   
   // Save positions of the special characters for later reference.
   int indexOfPi = unicodeString->IndexOf( L'\u03a0' );
   int indexOfSigma = unicodeString->IndexOf( L'\u03a3' );
   
   // Encode string.
   array<Byte>^encodedBytes = ascii->GetBytes( unicodeString );
   Console::WriteLine();
   Console::WriteLine( "Encoded bytes:" );
   IEnumerator^ myEnum = encodedBytes->GetEnumerator();
   while ( myEnum->MoveNext() )
   {
      Byte b = safe_cast<Byte>(myEnum->Current);
      Console::Write( "->Item[ {0}]", b );
   }

   Console::WriteLine();
   
   // Notice that the special characters have been replaced with
   // the value 63, which is the ASCII character code for '?'.
   Console::WriteLine();
   Console::WriteLine( "Value at position of Pi character: {0}", encodedBytes[ indexOfPi ] );
   Console::WriteLine( "Value at position of Sigma character: {0}", encodedBytes[ indexOfSigma ] );
   
   // Decode bytes back to string.
   // Notice missing Pi and Sigma characters.
   String^ decodedString = ascii->GetString( encodedBytes );
   Console::WriteLine();
   Console::WriteLine( "Decoded bytes:" );
   Console::WriteLine( decodedString );
}
// The example displays the following output:
//    Original string:
//    This Unicode string contains two characters with codes outside the ASCII code ra
//    nge, Pi (Π) and Sigma (Σ).
//
//    Encoded bytes:
//    [84][104][105][115][32][85][110][105][99][111][100][101][32][115][116][114][105]
//    [110][103][32][99][111][110][116][97][105][110][115][32][116][119][111][32][99][
//    104][97][114][97][99][116][101][114][115][32][119][105][116][104][32][99][111][1
//    00][101][115][32][111][117][116][115][105][100][101][32][116][104][101][32][65][
//    83][67][73][73][32][99][111][100][101][32][114][97][110][103][101][44][32][80][1
//    05][32][40][63][41][32][97][110][100][32][83][105][103][109][97][32][40][63][41]
//    [46]
//
//    Value at position of Pi character: 63
//    Value at position of Sigma character: 63
//
//    Decoded bytes:
//    This Unicode string contains two characters with codes outside the ASCII code ra
//    nge, Pi (?) and Sigma (?).
using System;
using System.Text;

class ASCIIEncodingExample {
    public static void Main() {
        // The encoding.
        ASCIIEncoding ascii = new ASCIIEncoding();
        
        // A Unicode string with two characters outside the ASCII code range.
        String unicodeString =
            "This Unicode string contains two characters " +
            "with codes outside the ASCII code range, " +
            "Pi (\u03a0) and Sigma (\u03a3).";
        Console.WriteLine("Original string:");
        Console.WriteLine(unicodeString);

        // Save positions of the special characters for later reference.
        int indexOfPi = unicodeString.IndexOf('\u03a0');
        int indexOfSigma = unicodeString.IndexOf('\u03a3');

        // Encode string.
        Byte[] encodedBytes = ascii.GetBytes(unicodeString);
        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.WriteLine("Encoded bytes:");
        foreach (Byte b in encodedBytes) {
            Console.Write("[{0}]", b);
        }
        Console.WriteLine();
        
        // Notice that the special characters have been replaced with
        // the value 63, which is the ASCII character code for '?'.
        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.WriteLine(
            "Value at position of Pi character: {0}",
            encodedBytes[indexOfPi]
        );
        Console.WriteLine(
            "Value at position of Sigma character: {0}",
            encodedBytes[indexOfSigma]
        );

        // Decode bytes back to string.
        // Notice missing Pi and Sigma characters.
        String decodedString = ascii.GetString(encodedBytes);
        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.WriteLine("Decoded bytes:");
        Console.WriteLine(decodedString);
    }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//    Original string:
//    This Unicode string contains two characters with codes outside the ASCII code ra
//    nge, Pi (Π) and Sigma (Σ).
//
//    Encoded bytes:
//    [84][104][105][115][32][85][110][105][99][111][100][101][32][115][116][114][105]
//    [110][103][32][99][111][110][116][97][105][110][115][32][116][119][111][32][99][
//    104][97][114][97][99][116][101][114][115][32][119][105][116][104][32][99][111][1
//    00][101][115][32][111][117][116][115][105][100][101][32][116][104][101][32][65][
//    83][67][73][73][32][99][111][100][101][32][114][97][110][103][101][44][32][80][1
//    05][32][40][63][41][32][97][110][100][32][83][105][103][109][97][32][40][63][41]
//    [46]
//
//    Value at position of Pi character: 63
//    Value at position of Sigma character: 63
//
//    Decoded bytes:
//    This Unicode string contains two characters with codes outside the ASCII code ra
//    nge, Pi (?) and Sigma (?).
Imports System.Text

Class ASCIIEncodingExample
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        ' The encoding.
        Dim ascii As New ASCIIEncoding()

        ' A Unicode string with two characters outside the ASCII code range.
        Dim unicodeString As String = _
            "This Unicode string contains two characters " & _
            "with codes outside the ASCII code range, " & _
            "Pi (" & ChrW(928) & ") and Sigma (" & ChrW(931) & ")."
        Console.WriteLine("Original string:")
        Console.WriteLine(unicodeString)

        ' Save positions of the special characters for later reference.
        Dim indexOfPi As Integer = unicodeString.IndexOf(ChrW(928))
        Dim indexOfSigma As Integer = unicodeString.IndexOf(ChrW(931))

        ' Encode string.
        Dim encodedBytes As Byte() = ascii.GetBytes(unicodeString)
        Console.WriteLine()
        Console.WriteLine("Encoded bytes:")
        Dim b As Byte
        For Each b In encodedBytes
            Console.Write("[{0}]", b)
        Next b
        Console.WriteLine()

        ' Notice that the special characters have been replaced with
        ' the value 63, which is the ASCII character code for '?'.
        Console.WriteLine()
        Console.WriteLine( _
            "Value at position of Pi character: {0}", _
            encodedBytes(indexOfPi) _
        )
        Console.WriteLine( _
            "Value at position of Sigma character: {0}", _
            encodedBytes(indexOfSigma) _
        )

        ' Decode bytes back to string.
        ' Notice missing Pi and Sigma characters.
        Dim decodedString As String = ascii.GetString(encodedBytes)
        Console.WriteLine()
        Console.WriteLine("Decoded bytes:")
        Console.WriteLine(decodedString)
    End Sub
End Class
' The example displays the following output:
'    Original string:
'    This Unicode string contains two characters with codes outside the ASCII code ra
'    nge, Pi (Π) and Sigma (Σ).
'
'    Encoded bytes:
'    [84][104][105][115][32][85][110][105][99][111][100][101][32][115][116][114][105]
'    [110][103][32][99][111][110][116][97][105][110][115][32][116][119][111][32][99][
'    104][97][114][97][99][116][101][114][115][32][119][105][116][104][32][99][111][1
'    00][101][115][32][111][117][116][115][105][100][101][32][116][104][101][32][65][
'    83][67][73][73][32][99][111][100][101][32][114][97][110][103][101][44][32][80][1
'    05][32][40][63][41][32][97][110][100][32][83][105][103][109][97][32][40][63][41]
'    [46]
'
'    Value at position of Pi character: 63
'    Value at position of Sigma character: 63
'
'    Decoded bytes:
'    This Unicode string contains two characters with codes outside the ASCII code ra
'    nge, Pi (?) and Sigma (?).

Remarks

Encoding is the process of transforming a set of Unicode characters into a sequence of bytes. Decoding is the process of transforming a sequence of encoded bytes into a set of Unicode characters.

ASCIIEncoding corresponds to the Windows code page 20127. Because ASCII is a 7-bit encoding, ASCII characters are limited to the lowest 128 Unicode characters, from U+0000 to U+007F. If you use the default encoder returned by the Encoding.ASCII property or the ASCIIEncoding constructor, characters outside that range are replaced with a question mark (?) before the encoding operation is performed. Because the ASCIIEncoding class supports only a limited character set, the UTF8Encoding, UnicodeEncoding, and UTF32Encoding classes are better suited for globalized applications. The following considerations can help you to decide whether to use ASCIIEncoding:

  • Some protocols require ASCII or a subset of ASCII. In these cases ASCII encoding is appropriate.

  • If an 8-bit encoding is expected, then ASCII probably isn't the correct choice. Instead, consider using UTF8 instead of ASCII. For the characters U+0000 through U+007F, the results are identical, but all Unicode characters are representable in UTF-8, which avoids data loss.

Caution

ASCIIEncoding does not provide error detection. For security reasons, you should use UTF8Encoding, UnicodeEncoding, or UTF32Encoding and enable error detection.

The GetByteCount method determines how many bytes result in encoding a set of Unicode characters, and the GetBytes method performs the actual encoding.

Likewise, the GetCharCount method determines how many characters result in decoding a sequence of bytes, and the GetChars and GetString methods perform the actual decoding.

Note that the default ASCIIEncoding constructor by itself might not have the appropriate behavior for your application. You might want to consider setting the EncoderFallback or DecoderFallback property to EncoderExceptionFallback or DecoderExceptionFallback to prevent sequences with the 8th bit set. Custom behavior might also be appropriate for these cases.

Constructors

ASCIIEncoding()

Initializes a new instance of the ASCIIEncoding class.

Properties

IsSingleByte

Gets a value indicating whether the current encoding uses single-byte code points.

Methods

GetByteCount(String)

Calculates the number of bytes produced by encoding the characters in the specified String.

GetByteCount(Char*, Int32)

Calculates the number of bytes produced by encoding a set of characters starting at the specified character pointer.

GetByteCount(Char[], Int32, Int32)

Calculates the number of bytes produced by encoding a set of characters from the specified character array.

GetBytes(Char*, Int32, Byte*, Int32)

Encodes a set of characters starting at the specified character pointer into a sequence of bytes that are stored starting at the specified byte pointer.

GetBytes(Char[], Int32, Int32, Byte[], Int32)

Encodes a set of characters from the specified character array into the specified byte array.

GetBytes(String, Int32, Int32, Byte[], Int32)

Encodes a set of characters from the specified String into the specified byte array.

GetCharCount(Byte[], Int32, Int32)

Calculates the number of characters produced by decoding a sequence of bytes from the specified byte array.

GetCharCount(Byte*, Int32)

Calculates the number of characters produced by decoding a sequence of bytes starting at the specified byte pointer.

GetChars(Byte*, Int32, Char*, Int32)

Decodes a sequence of bytes starting at the specified byte pointer into a set of characters that are stored starting at the specified character pointer.

GetChars(Byte[], Int32, Int32, Char[], Int32)

Decodes a sequence of bytes from the specified byte array into the specified character array.

GetDecoder()

Obtains a decoder that converts an ASCII encoded sequence of bytes into a sequence of Unicode characters.

GetEncoder()

Obtains an encoder that converts a sequence of Unicode characters into an ASCII encoded sequence of bytes.

GetMaxByteCount(Int32)

Calculates the maximum number of bytes produced by encoding the specified number of characters.

GetMaxCharCount(Int32)

Calculates the maximum number of characters produced by decoding the specified number of bytes.

GetString(Byte[], Int32, Int32)

Decodes a range of bytes from a byte array into a string.