Go string to ascii byte array

Question

How can I encode my string as ASCII byte array?

score 118 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 30 '10 at 13:18

118

If you're looking for a conversion, just do byteArray := []byte(myString)

The language spec details conversions between strings and certain types of arrays (byte for bytes, int for Unicode points)

answered Jul 30 '10 at 13:18

cthom06

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I think cthom06 realizes this, but this isn't, strictly speaking, an "ASCII" byte array. It's more like a UTF-8 byte array. If the string contained non-ASCII characters, then the bytes for those characters will be here too. If you want your code to play well with different languages, that's something you should always keep in mind. – Evan Shaw Jul 30 '10 at 21:51
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@Chickencha that's true. I kind of gave the quick and dirty answer. But i did mention the []int conversion for better unicode handling – cthom06 Aug 01 '10 at 03:41
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As of Go version 1 you should use the built-in rune datatype for Unicode handling. – hannson May 01 '12 at 01:03
The language spec details conversions between strings and certain types of arrays (byte for bytes, int for Unicode points). => The encoding/decoding is UTF8. – fjjiaboming May 30 '16 at 03:41
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What about ASCII characters greater 127? This solution returns a 2-byte character then, but ASCII is one-byte only. For example character 170? – TehSphinX Feb 17 '20 at 10:05

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 19 '12 at 13:12

You may not need to do anything. If you only need to read bytes of a string, you can do that directly:

c := s[3]

cthom06's answer gives you a byte slice you can manipulate:

b := []byte(s)
b[3] = c

Then you can create a new string from the modified byte slice if you like:

s = string(b)

But you mentioned ASCII. If your string is ASCII to begin with, then you are done. If it contains something else, you have more to deal with and might want to post another question with more details about your data.

Go string to ascii byte array

2 Answers2