How to Convert to a UTF-8 Using Visual Basic

Use Visual Basic to encode in UTF-8.

The UTF-8 language provides an encoding standard used on the Internet for online URLs and email communication. UTF-8 is used in Visual Basic coding for online communications, including links, URL submissions and sending email to users. The Visual Basic language has an internal function that automatically encodes a string to UTF-8 standards. The results from the function return a byte array you can use to code your application.

Instructions

1. Create a byte array. This variable is defined and later used to hold the results of your UTF-8 conversion. The following code creates an array in Visual Basic:

   Dim arrBytes() As Byte

2. Create a string that contains a URL. The following code shows you how to create a string for a URL:

   Dim url As String
   url = "your_domain.com"

   Replace "your_domain.com" with the URL you want to encode.

3. Encode the string and store it in the byte array you created. The following code encodes the URL to UTF-8 standards:

   arrByte = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(url)

4. Print out the results. These results are shown to the user or you can print out results for testing purposes. The following code creates a message box with the results:

   MsgBox arrBytes.ToString()

References

• NonHostile: How to Convert a Unicode String into a UTF-8 Array of Bytes