Base64 encoding

This article shows how to use base64 in Haxe and how to use a custom charset.

var myString = "Hello world!";
var encoded = haxe.crypto.Base64.encode(haxe.io.Bytes.ofString(myString));
trace(encoded); // SGVsbG8gd29ybGQh

var decoded = haxe.crypto.Base64.decode(encoded).toString();
trace(decoded); // Hello world!

Customizing charset

As alternative to using the Base64 class as above, it's possible to encode with a custom set of chararacters. Lets use the Base64 chararacters first, which will result in the same as default base64 encoding.

var myString = "Hello world!";

var charset = haxe.crypto.Base64.CHARS;
var baseCode = new haxe.crypto.BaseCode(haxe.io.Bytes.ofString(charset));

var encoded = baseCode.encodeString(myString);
trace(encoded);  // SGVsbG8gd29ybGQh

var decoded = baseCode.decodeString(encoded);
trace(decoded); // Hello world!

Now lets use a more funky charset. Note that the base length must be a power of two (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 etc). In this example we use the four characters "1ILi" as charset. The encoded string will be larger, but as expected only contains those characters.

var myString = "Hello world!";

var charset = "1ILi";
var baseCode = new haxe.crypto.BaseCode(haxe.io.Bytes.ofString(charset));

var encoded = baseCode.encodeString(myString);
trace(encoded);  // I1L1ILIIILi1ILi1ILii1L11IiIiILiiIi1LILi1ILI11L1I

var decoded = baseCode.decodeString(encoded);
trace(decoded); // Hello world!

With this knowledge it is possible to create a Base32 in Haxe; just use "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789" as charset. Or Base16 would be "0123456789ABCDEF".

var myString = "Hello world!";

var charset = "1ILi";
var baseCode = new haxe.crypto.BaseCode(haxe.io.Bytes.ofString(charset));

var encoded = baseCode.encodeString(myString);
trace(encoded);  // I1L1ILIIILi1ILi1ILii1L11IiIiILiiIi1LILi1ILI11L1I

var decoded = baseCode.decodeString(encoded);
trace(decoded); // Hello world!