2

I'm new to C# and I have a client request with a value which is base64 encoded. I'm trying to decode the string and make use of the JSON object. Here is the function I call to decode the base64 string.

    public string FromBase64(string data)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(data)) return data;
        var bytes = Convert.FromBase64String(data);
        return UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes);
    }

How can I convert the return value of this function or modify it to JSON so that I can parse its values?

For example, right now for the value of input value data e0tleSA6ICdhYmMnLCBpc0V4aXN0czogJ3RydWUnfQ==, the current output is "{Key : 'abc', isExists: 'true'}". The output I want is {Key : 'abc', isExists: 'true'}

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8
  • 1
    well, what does your existing code return? we don't know what your payload is, so we don't know what is going to happen when that executes... Commented Mar 4, 2021 at 13:48
  • Can you give an example of input and expected output? Commented Mar 4, 2021 at 13:49
  • @MarcGravell I have updated the question Commented Mar 4, 2021 at 14:48
  • @zinngg what difference are you seeing? they look the same to me.... Commented Mar 4, 2021 at 14:52
  • 1
    @zinngg You'll need to run it through a JSON deserializer, obviously; for example: gist.github.com/mgravell/c232664fd97fbbbdffc6560d1ed521fb Commented Mar 4, 2021 at 14:57

3 Answers 3

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5

You have a base-64 string, and you seem to what a deserialized object; so you'll need multiple steps:

  • decode the base-64 to binary
  • interpret the binary as text
  • define an object model that matches the expected data
  • deserialize the text as the object model

For example:

    static void Main()
    {
        var base64 = @"e0tleSA6ICdhYmMnLCBpc0V4aXN0czogJ3RydWUnfQ==";
        var blob = Convert.FromBase64String(base64);
        var json = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(blob);
        // string: "{Key : 'abc', isExists: 'true'}"
 
        var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyPayload>(json);
        Console.WriteLine(obj.Key);
        Console.WriteLine(obj.IsExists);
    }

    class MyPayload
    {
        public bool IsExists { get; set; }
        public string Key { get; set; }
    }
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Comments

2

I hope I understood your question correctly, here is my code example for a generic method that can create a T object by deserializing a base-64 string:

    public static T FromBase64<T>(string data)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(data))
        {
            return default;
        }
        
        var bytes = Convert.FromBase64String(data);
        var parsedString = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes);
        return JsonSerializer.Deserialize<T>(parsedString);
    }
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1 Comment

for parsedString; it gives 'Cannot convert from 'string' to JSonReader' error.
0

Your code to turn the base64 into string is working properly so now you need to create a class corresponding to your JSON and deserialize the result of the method :

var content = FromBase64(myBase64);
var myObject = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<MyObject>(content);
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