How do I encode and decode a base64 string?

Question

1. How do I return a base64 encoded string given a string?

2. How do I decode a base64 encoded string into a string?

Answer 1

For those that simply want to encode/decode individual base64 digits:

public static int DecodeBase64Digit(char digit, string digit62 = "+-.~", string digit63 = "/_,")
{
    if (digit >= 'A' && digit <= 'Z') return digit - 'A';
    if (digit >= 'a' && digit <= 'z') return digit + (26 - 'a');
    if (digit >= '0' && digit <= '9') return digit + (52 - '0');
    if (digit62.IndexOf(digit) > -1)  return 62;
    if (digit63.IndexOf(digit) > -1)  return 63;
    return -1;
}

public static char EncodeBase64Digit(int digit, char digit62 = '+', char digit63 = '/')
{
    digit &= 63;
    if (digit < 52)
        return (char)(digit < 26 ? digit + 'A' : digit + ('a' - 26));
    else if (digit < 62)
        return (char)(digit + ('0' - 52));
    else
        return digit == 62 ? digit62 : digit63;
}

There are various versions of Base64 that disagree about what to use for digits 62 and 63, so DecodeBase64Digit can tolerate several of these.