C# 1byte-1char strings

[Dave Shaw]

Hi, Does anyone know an easy way to create a string of characters that are assigned 1 byte for each character, in C#. I am interfaceing with a rather old API (written in ANSI C, think) from .NET 2005 (beta). The problem is that the normal c# string data type uses unicode encoding, this allocates atleast 8 bytes per char. I have a Delphi 6 interface for the API that uses PCHAR data type, instead of string, and this works OK. Also, will I need to declare the API calls with a data type that uses 1 byte per char, instead of just string? P.S. this is the MSMAPI32.DLL to connect to Micronetics MSM (MUMPS). Incase there are any MUMPSTER's out there.:-O Thanx! Dave Shaw History admires the wise, but elevates the brave. - Edmund Morris

[leppie]

Dave Shaw wrote:

The problem is that the normal c# string data type uses unicode encoding, this allocates atleast 8 bytes per char.

:doh: thats 2 bytes rather... Use System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes() . xacc-ide 0.0.99-preview7 now with C#, C, C++, IL, XML, Nemerle, IronPython, Perl, Caml, SML, Ruby, Flex, Yacc, Java, Javascript, Lua, Prolog and Boo highlighting support!

[Dave Kreskowiak]

Leppie is right, Unicode is 2-bytes, not 8. Unicode makes room for 65,535 characters in a set (255 * 255). 8 Bytes would allow lots and lots and lots of characters, like (255 ^ 8). RageInTheMachine9532 "...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome

[uno freeware]

well you can always use byte vectors, or pointers to byte in an unsafe part of the code... then you can use normal io.streamwriter for writing and io.streamreader for reading <- true inside to understand outside ->

[lmoelleb]

Unicode makes room for something like a million characters. Unicode does not take up any "bytes". It just define which "character" is at which number. In order to represent Unicode in memory or on file, you need an encoding of the Unicode character set. The UTF-16 encoding (which is probably what you refer to as this is what C# use internally) will use 2 or 4 bytes per character.

[Daniel Turini]

Probably this MSDN article[^] will solve your problem. Just specify CharSet = Auto. I don't see dead pixels anymore... Yes, even I am blogging now!