How do I base64 encode (decode) in C?

Question

I have binary data in an unsigned char variable. I need to convert them to PEM base64 in c. I looked in openssl library but i could not find any function. Does any body have

Answer 1

I wrote one for use with C++, it's very fast, works with streams, free, and open source:

https://tmplusplus.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/tmplusplus/trunk/src/

Feel free to use it if it fits your purpose.

Edit: Added code inline by request.

The performance boost is acieved by using a lookup table for encoding and decoding. _UINT8 is an unsigned char on most OS's.

/** Static Base64 character encoding lookup table */
const char CBase64::encodeCharacterTable[65] = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/";

/** Static Base64 character decoding lookup table */
const char CBase64::decodeCharacterTable[256] = {
    -1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1
    ,-1,62,-1,-1,-1,63,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21
    ,22,23,24,25,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,
    -1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,
    -1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1
    ,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,
    -1,-1,-1}; 

/*!
\brief Encodes binary data to base 64 character data
\param in The data to encode
\param out The encoded data as characters
*/
void CBase64::Encode(std::istream &in, std::ostringstream &out)
{
    char buff1[3];
    char buff2[4];
    _UINT8 i=0, j;
    while(in.readsome(&buff1[i++], 1))
        if (i==3)
        {
            out << encodeCharacterTable[(buff1[0] & 0xfc) >> 2];
            out << encodeCharacterTable[((buff1[0] & 0x03) << 4) + ((buff1[1] & 0xf0) >> 4)];
            out << encodeCharacterTable[((buff1[1] & 0x0f) << 2) + ((buff1[2] & 0xc0) >> 6)];
            out << encodeCharacterTable[buff1[2] & 0x3f];
            i=0;
        }

    if (--i)
    {
        for(j=i;j<3;j++) buff1[j] = '\0';

        buff2[0] = (buff1[0] & 0xfc) >> 2;
        buff2[1] = ((buff1[0] & 0x03) << 4) + ((buff1[1] & 0xf0) >> 4);
        buff2[2] = ((buff1[1] & 0x0f) << 2) + ((buff1[2] & 0xc0) >> 6);
        buff2[3] = buff1[2] & 0x3f;

        for (j=0;j<(i+1);j++) out << encodeCharacterTable[buff2[j]];

        while(i++<3) out << '=';
    }

}

/*!
\brief Decodes base 64 character data to binary data
\param in The character data to decode
\param out The decoded data
*/
void CBase64::Decode(std::istringstream &in, std::ostream &out)
{
    char buff1[4];
    char buff2[4];
    _UINT8 i=0, j;

    while(in.readsome(&buff2[i], 1) && buff2[i] != '=')
    {
        if (++i==4)
        {
            for (i=0;i!=4;i++)
                buff2[i] = decodeCharacterTable[buff2[i]];

            out << (char)((buff2[0] << 2) + ((buff2[1] & 0x30) >> 4));
            out << (char)(((buff2[1] & 0xf) << 4) + ((buff2[2] & 0x3c) >> 2));
            out << (char)(((buff2[2] & 0x3) << 6) + buff2[3]);

            i=0;
        }
    }

    if (i) 
    {
        for (j=i;j<4;j++) buff2[j] = '\0';
        for (j=0;j<4;j++) buff2[j] = decodeCharacterTable[buff2[j]];

        buff1[0] = (buff2[0] << 2) + ((buff2[1] & 0x30) >> 4);
        buff1[1] = ((buff2[1] & 0xf) << 4) + ((buff2[2] & 0x3c) >> 2);
        buff1[2] = ((buff2[2] & 0x3) << 6) + buff2[3];

        for (j=0;j<(i-1); j++) out << (char)buff1[j];
    }
}