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POHow do you convert binary data to Strings and back in Java?
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copied!<p>I have binary data in a file that I can read into a byte array and process with no problem. Now I need to send parts of the data over a network connection as elements in an XML document. My problem is that when I convert the data from an array of bytes to a String and back to an array of bytes, the data is getting corrupted. I've tested this on one machine to isolate the problem to the String conversion, so I now know that it isn't getting corrupted by the XML parser or the network transport.</p> <p>What I've got right now is</p> <pre><code>byte[] buffer = ...; // read from file // a few lines that prove I can process the data successfully String element = new String(buffer); byte[] newBuffer = element.getBytes(); // a few lines that try to process newBuffer and fail because it is not the same data anymore </code></pre> <p>Does anyone know how to convert binary to String and back without data loss?</p> <p>Answered: Thanks Sam. I feel like an idiot. I had this answered yesterday because my SAX parser was complaining. For some reason when I ran into this seemingly separate issue, it didn't occur to me that it was a new symptom of the same problem.</p> <p>EDIT: Just for the sake of completeness, I used the <a href="http://commons.apache.org/codec/apidocs/org/apache/commons/codec/binary/Base64.html" rel="noreferrer">Base64</a> class from the <a href="http://commons.apache.org/" rel="noreferrer">Apache Commons</a> <a href="http://commons.apache.org/codec/" rel="noreferrer">Codec</a> package to solve this problem.</p>

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