How to convert NSString to bytes

Question

NSString *test = @\"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ\";

How to convert this string to bytes?

Answer 1

Swift 1.x

extension String {
    var bytes: [Byte] {
        return Array(utf8)
    }
}

---

Swift 2.1.1

extension String {
    var bytes : [UInt8] {
        return Array(utf8)
    }
}

---

Xcode 9 • Swift 4 or later

extension StringProtocol {
    var bytes: [UInt8] { return .init(utf8) }
    var data: Data { return .init(utf8) }
}

---

Xcode 11 • Swift 5.1 or later

extension StringProtocol {
    var bytes: [UInt8] { .init(utf8) }
    var data: Data { .init(utf8) }
}

---

testing:

"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ".bytes  // [65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90]

Answer 2

NSData *bytes = [test dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

Answer 3

Do you want something like this:

NSString *test=@"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
NSUInteger bytes = [test lengthOfBytesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(@"%i bytes", bytes);