UnicodeEncoding.GetChars Method

Definition

Decodes a sequence of bytes into a set of characters.

Overloads

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.

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

Source:
UnicodeEncoding.cs
Source:
UnicodeEncoding.cs
Source:
UnicodeEncoding.cs

Important

This API is not CLS-compliant.

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.

C#
[System.CLSCompliant(false)]
public override int GetChars(byte* bytes, int byteCount, char* chars, int charCount);
C#
[System.CLSCompliant(false)]
[System.Security.SecurityCritical]
public override int GetChars(byte* bytes, int byteCount, char* chars, int charCount);
C#
[System.CLSCompliant(false)]
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComVisible(false)]
public override int GetChars(byte* bytes, int byteCount, char* chars, int charCount);
C#
[System.CLSCompliant(false)]
[System.Security.SecurityCritical]
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComVisible(false)]
public override int GetChars(byte* bytes, int byteCount, char* chars, int charCount);

Parameters

bytes
Byte*

A pointer to the first byte to decode.

byteCount
Int32

The number of bytes to decode.

chars
Char*

A pointer to the location at which to start writing the resulting set of characters.

charCount
Int32

The maximum number of characters to write.

Returns

The actual number of characters written at the location indicated by the chars parameter.

Attributes

Exceptions

bytes is null (Nothing).

-or-

chars is null (Nothing).

byteCount or charCount is less than zero.

Error detection is enabled, and bytes contains an invalid sequence of bytes.

-or-

charCount is less than the resulting number of characters.

A fallback occurred (for more information, see Character Encoding in .NET)

-and-

DecoderFallback is set to DecoderExceptionFallback.

Remarks

To calculate the exact array size that GetChars requires to store the resulting characters, the application uses GetCharCount. To calculate the maximum array size, the application should use GetMaxCharCount. The GetCharCount method generally allocates less memory, while the GetMaxCharCount method generally executes faster.

With error detection, an invalid sequence causes this method to throw a ArgumentException. Without error detection, invalid sequences are ignored, and no exception is thrown.

If the range of bytes to be decoded includes the byte order mark (BOM) and the byte array was returned by a method of a non-BOM aware type, the character U+FFFE is included in the character array returned by this method. You can remove it by calling the String.TrimStart method.

Data to be converted, such as data read from a stream, might be available only in sequential blocks. In this case, or if the amount of data is so large that it needs to be divided into smaller blocks, the application should use the Decoder or the Encoder object provided by the GetDecoder or the GetEncoder method, respectively.

See also

Applies to

.NET 10 and other versions
Product Versions
.NET Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
.NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 2.0, 2.1

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

Source:
UnicodeEncoding.cs
Source:
UnicodeEncoding.cs
Source:
UnicodeEncoding.cs

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

C#
public override int GetChars(byte[] bytes, int byteIndex, int byteCount, char[] chars, int charIndex);

Parameters

bytes
Byte[]

The byte array containing the sequence of bytes to decode.

byteIndex
Int32

The index of the first byte to decode.

byteCount
Int32

The number of bytes to decode.

chars
Char[]

The character array to contain the resulting set of characters.

charIndex
Int32

The index at which to start writing the resulting set of characters.

Returns

The actual number of characters written into chars.

Exceptions

bytes is null (Nothing).

-or-

chars is null (Nothing).

byteIndex or byteCount or charIndex is less than zero.

-or-

byteindex and byteCount do not denote a valid range in bytes.

-or-

charIndex is not a valid index in chars.

Error detection is enabled, and bytes contains an invalid sequence of bytes.

-or-

chars does not have enough capacity from charIndex to the end of the array to accommodate the resulting characters.

A fallback occurred (for more information, see Character Encoding in .NET)

-and-

DecoderFallback is set to DecoderExceptionFallback.

Examples

The following example demonstrates how to use the GetChars method to decode a range of elements in a byte array and store the result in a character array.

C#
using System;
using System.Text;

class UnicodeEncodingExample {
    public static void Main() {
        Char[] chars;
        Byte[] bytes = new Byte[] {
            85, 0, 110, 0, 105, 0, 99, 0, 111, 0, 100, 0, 101, 0
        };

        UnicodeEncoding Unicode = new UnicodeEncoding();

        int charCount = Unicode.GetCharCount(bytes, 2, 8);
        chars = new Char[charCount];
        int charsDecodedCount = Unicode.GetChars(bytes, 2, 8, chars, 0);

        Console.WriteLine(
            "{0} characters used to decode bytes.", charsDecodedCount
        );

        Console.Write("Decoded chars: ");
        foreach (Char c in chars) {
            Console.Write("[{0}]", c);
        }
        Console.WriteLine();
    }
}

Remarks

To calculate the exact array size required by GetChars to store the resulting characters, the application uses GetCharCount. To calculate the maximum array size, the application should use GetMaxCharCount. The GetCharCount method generally allocates less memory, while the GetMaxCharCount method generally executes faster.

With error detection, an invalid sequence causes this method to throw a ArgumentException. Without error detection, invalid sequences are ignored, and no exception is thrown.

If the range of bytes to be decoded includes the byte order mark (BOM) and the byte array was returned by a method of a non-BOM aware type, the character U+FFFE is included in the character array returned by this method. You can remove it by calling the String.TrimStart method.

Data to be converted, such as data read from a stream, might be available only in sequential blocks. In this case, or if the amount of data is so large that it needs to be divided into smaller blocks, the application should use the Decoder or the Encoder provided by the GetDecoder method or the GetEncoder method, respectively.

See also

Applies to

.NET 10 and other versions
Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0