Java 8 Base64: Simple, URL, and MIME Encoding Made Easy

With Java 8, Base64 has finally got its due. Java 8 now has inbuilt encoder and decoder for Base64 encoding. In Java 8, we can use three types of Base64 encoding.

• Simple − Output is mapped to a set of characters lying in A-Za-z0-9+/. The encoder does not add any line feed in output, and the decoder rejects any character other than A-Za-z0-9+/.

• URL − Output is mapped to set of characters lying in A-Za-z0-9+_. Output is URL and filename safe.

• MIME − Output is mapped to MIME friendly format. Output is represented in lines of no more than 76 characters each, and uses a carriage return '\r' followed by a linefeed '\n' as the line separator. No line separator is present to the end of the encoded output.

Nested Classes

Methods

Methods Inherited

This class inherits methods from the following class −

• java.lang.Object

Base64 Example

Create the following Java program using any editor of your choice in say C:/> JAVA.

Java8Tester.java

import java.util.Base64;
import java.util.UUID;
import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;

public class HelloWorld {

   public static void main(String args[]) {

      try {
		
         // Encode using basic encoder
         String base64encodedString = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(
            "TutorialsPoint?java8".getBytes("utf-8"));
         System.out.println("Base64 Encoded String (Basic) :" + base64encodedString);
		
         // Decode
         byte[] base64decodedBytes = Base64.getDecoder().decode(base64encodedString);
		
         System.out.println("Original String: " + new String(base64decodedBytes, "utf-8"));
         base64encodedString = Base64.getUrlEncoder().encodeToString(
            "TutorialsPoint?java8".getBytes("utf-8"));
         System.out.println("Base64 Encoded String (URL) :" + base64encodedString);
		
         StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
		
         for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
            stringBuilder.append(UUID.randomUUID().toString());
         }
		
         byte[] mimeBytes = stringBuilder.toString().getBytes("utf-8");
         String mimeEncodedString = Base64.getMimeEncoder().encodeToString(mimeBytes);
         System.out.println("Base64 Encoded String (MIME) :" + mimeEncodedString);

      } catch(UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
         System.out.println("Error :" + e.getMessage());
      }
   }
}

Verify the Result

Compile the class using javac compiler as follows −

C:\JAVA>javac Java8Tester.java

Now run the Java8Tester as follows −

C:\JAVA>java Java8Tester

It should produce the following output −

Base64 Encoded String (Basic) :VHV0b3JpYWxzUG9pbnQ/amF2YTg=
Original String: TutorialsPoint?java8
Base64 Encoded String (URL) :VHV0b3JpYWxzUG9pbnQ_amF2YTg=
Base64 Encoded String (MIME) :YmU3NWY2ODktNGM5YS00ODlmLWI2MTUtZTVkOTk2YzQ1Njk1Y2EwZTg2OTEtMmRiZC00YTQ1LWJl
NTctMTI1MWUwMTk0ZWQyNDE0NDAwYjgtYTYxOS00NDY5LTllYTctNjc1YzE3YWJhZTk1MTQ2MDQz
NDItOTAyOC00ZWI0LThlOTYtZWU5YzcwNWQyYzVhMTQxMWRjYTMtY2MwNi00MzU0LTg0MTgtNGQ1
MDkwYjdiMzg2ZTY0OWU5MmUtZmNkYS00YWEwLTg0MjQtYThiOTQxNDQ2YzhhNTVhYWExZjItNjU2
Mi00YmM4LTk2ZGYtMDE4YmY5ZDZhMjkwMzM3MWUzNDMtMmQ3MS00MDczLWI0Y2UtMTQxODE0MGU5
YjdmYTVlODUxYzItN2NmOS00N2UyLWIyODQtMThlMWVkYTY4M2Q1YjE3YTMyYmItZjllMS00MTFk
LWJiM2UtM2JhYzUxYzI5OWI4