Java String.getBytes( charsetName ) vs String.getBytes ( Charset object )

Question

I need to encode a String to byte array using UTF-8 encoding. I am using Google guava, it has Charsets class already define Charset instance for UTF-8 encoding. I have 2 way

Answer 1

The first API is for situations when you do not know the charset at compile time; the second one is for situations when you do. Since it appears that your code needs UTF-8 specifically, you should prefer the second API:

byte[] bytes = my_input.getBytes ( Charsets.UTF_8 ); // <<== UTF-8 is known at compile time

The first API is for situations when the charset comes from outside your program - for example, from the configuration file, from user input, as part of a client request to the server, and so on. That is why there is a checked exception thrown from it - for situations when the charset specified in the configuration or through some other means is not available.