What is the difference between these unicode classes?

Question

Say I wanted to convert a string into a utf8 byte array, I could do it via

System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(...)

or

System.Text.UnicodeEncoding.UTF8.GetBytes(...)

or

System.Text.UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(...)

As far as I can tell there is no difference between them. Are they all referring to the same thing? Why are there so many?

this is the same static property of `Encoding` base class – Artur Udod Mar 14 '16 at 12:54 — Artur Udod, Mar 14 '16 at 12:54

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

Both UnicodeEncoding and UTF8Encoding are subclasses of the Encoding class.
UTF8 is a static property of the Encoding class
You can access a static property/field/method of a class by using the name of one of its subclasses, so that UnicodeEncoding.UTF8 in this case is the same as writing Encoding.UTF8
As an exception to point 3, a subclass can "hide" a property/field/method of a subclass by using the new keyword... BUT this doesn't happen in this case.

For points 3 and 4 see for example this question (it is about a method, but the concept is the same)

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