UTF7Encoding Class

Encoding is the process of transforming a set of Unicode characters into a sequence of bytes. Decoding is the process of transforming a sequence of encoded bytes into a set of Unicode characters.

The UTF-7 encoding represents Unicode characters as sequences of 7-bit ASCII characters. This encoding supports certain protocols for which it is required, most often e-mail or newsgroup protocols. Since UTF-7 is not particularly secure or robust, and most modern systems allow 8-bit encodings, UTF-8 should normally be preferred to UTF-7.

Note
UTF7Encoding does not provide error detection. For security reasons, the application should use UTF8Encoding, UnicodeEncoding, or UTF32Encoding and enable error detection.

For more information about the UTFs and other encodings supported by System.Text, see Character Encoding in the .NET Framework and Using Unicode Encoding.

The GetByteCount method determines how many bytes result in encoding a set of Unicode characters, and the GetBytes method performs the actual encoding.

Likewise, the GetCharCount method determines how many characters result in decoding a sequence of bytes, and the GetChars and GetString methods perform the actual decoding.

UTF7Encoding corresponds to the Windows code page 65000.

Note
The state of a UTF-7 encoded object is not preserved if the object is serialized and deserialized using different .NET Framework versions.

The following code example demonstrates how to use a UTF7Encoding to encode a string of Unicode characters and store them in a byte array. Notice that when the byte array is decoded back to a string, no data is lost.

using System;
using System.Text;

class UTF7EncodingExample {
    public static void Main() {
        // Create a UTF-7 encoding.
        UTF7Encoding utf7 = new UTF7Encoding();

        // A Unicode string with two characters outside a 7-bit code range.
        String unicodeString =
            "This Unicode string contains two characters " +
            "with codes outside a 7-bit code range, " +
            "Pi (\u03a0) and Sigma (\u03a3).";
        Console.WriteLine("Original string:");
        Console.WriteLine(unicodeString);

        // Encode the string.
        Byte[] encodedBytes = utf7.GetBytes(unicodeString);
        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.WriteLine("Encoded bytes:");
        foreach (Byte b in encodedBytes) {
            Console.Write("[{0}]", b);
        }
        Console.WriteLine();

        // Decode bytes back to string.
        // Notice Pi and Sigma characters are still present.
        String decodedString = utf7.GetString(encodedBytes);
        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.WriteLine("Decoded bytes:");
        Console.WriteLine(decodedString);
    }
}

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference

Other Resources