Convert byte[] to char[]

Question

How do I convert a byte array to a char array in C#?

Answer 1

You must know the source encoding.

string someText = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";
byte[] bytes = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(someText);
char[] chars = Encoding.Unicode.GetChars(bytes);

Answer 2

byte[] a = new byte[50];

char [] cArray= System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(a).ToCharArray();

From the URL thedixon posted

http://bytes.com/topic/c-sharp/answers/250261-byte-char

You cannot ToCharArray the byte without converting it to a string first.

To quote Jon Skeet there

There's no need for the copying here - just use Encoding.GetChars. However, there's no guarantee that ASCII is going to be the appropriate encoding to use.

Answer 3

System.Text.Encoding.ChooseYourEncoding.GetString(bytes).ToCharArray();

Substitute the right encoding above: e.g.

System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes).ToCharArray();