Remove trailing “=” when base64 encoding

Question

I am noticing that whenever I base64 encode a string, a \"=\" is appended at the end. Can I remove this character and then reliably decode it later by adding it back, or is

Answer 1

On Android I am using this:

Global

String CHARSET_NAME ="UTF-8";

Encode

String base64 = new String(
            Base64.encode(byteArray, Base64.URL_SAFE | Base64.NO_PADDING | Base64.NO_CLOSE | Base64.NO_WRAP),
            CHARSET_NAME);
return base64.trim();

Decode

byte[] bytes = Base64.decode(base64String,
            Base64.URL_SAFE | Base64.NO_PADDING | Base64.NO_CLOSE | Base64.NO_WRAP);

equals this on Java:

Encode

private static String base64UrlEncode(byte[] input)
{
    Base64 encoder = new Base64(true);
    byte[] encodedBytes = encoder.encode(input);
    return StringUtils.newStringUtf8(encodedBytes).trim();
}

Decode

private static byte[] base64UrlDecode(String input) {
    byte[] originalValue = StringUtils.getBytesUtf8(input);
    Base64 decoder = new Base64(true);
    return decoder.decode(originalValue);
}

I had never problems with trailing "=" and I am using Bouncycastle as well