Type Conversion: Byte[] to String, String to Byte[]

Question

I'm trying for educational purposes, use the camera of Android to get a photo and send this to a webservice using SOAP.

First, the camera send me a byte[] array but this isn't serializable and I can't send this to the webservice. Now I'm trying to convert this into a String (this type is serializable), and in the webservice reconvert this String into a byte[] array.

How I can do it?

For example, I'm trying:

request.addProperty("photo", (Arrays.toString((byte[])params[0])));

How I get this String and convert to the original and exactly byte[]?

Thanks in advance!

Would it not be easier to turn it into an image format and serialize that? — Neil Townsend, Jun 16 '13 at 20:04
`byte[]` isn't serializable? Serializing is precisely converting to `byte[]`... — m0skit0, Jun 16 '13 at 20:06
I suggest you use `byte[]` not `Byte[]` as the latter is less efficient. BTW byte[] is Serializable, you can just sent it as it is. — Peter Lawrey, Jun 16 '13 at 20:06
Thanks for faster answers. When I try to send byte[] Android... 06-16 22:10:18.787: W/System.err(19363): java.lang.RuntimeException: Cannot serialize: [B@41180398 — Hypnotize, Jun 16 '13 at 20:10

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

2

If you really need to convert a byte[] into a String, use an intermediate serialization meant for arbitrary byte data, such Base64. Strings are for character data, not arbitrary byte[]s.

Android's Base64 class makes the above trivial.

This question is pretty much a duplicate of Android: using Base64 to encode an Image to String.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

Community

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answered Jun 16 '13 at 20:06

Matt Ball

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score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:00

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If your web-service only supports ASCII input you can encode your data in base 64: Base64 Encoding in Java

edited May 23 '17 at 12:00

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answered Jun 16 '13 at 20:07

Pragmateek

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 16 '13 at 20:33

Finally I use it to send byte[] to a Webservice and Decode it. Thanks!

ANDROID SOAP SERVICE:

request.addProperty("photo", Base64.encodeToString((byte[])params[0], Base64.DEFAULT));

SOAP WEBSERVICE

BASE64Decoder decoder = new BASE64Decoder();                    
byte[] a = decoder.decodeBuffer(VAR);

Type Conversion: Byte[] to String, String to Byte[]

3 Answers3