How to get a char from an ASCII Character Code in C#

Question

I'm trying to parse a file in C# that has field (string) arrays separated by ASCII character codes 0, 1 and 2 (in Visual Basic 6 you can generate these by using Chr(0) or Chr(1) etc.)

I know that for character code 0 in C# you can do the following:

char separator = '\0';

But this doesn't work for character codes 1 and 2?

Solution 1

Two options:

char c1 = '\u0001';
char c1 = (char) 1;

Solution 2

You can simply write:

char c = (char) 2;

or

char c = Convert.ToChar(2);

or more complex option for ASCII encoding only

char[] characters = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetChars(new byte[]{2});
char c = characters[0];

Solution 3

It is important to notice that in C# the char type is stored as Unicode UTF-16.

From ASCII equivalent integer to char

char c = (char)88;

or

char c = Convert.ToChar(88)

From char to ASCII equivalent integer

int asciiCode = (int)'A';

The literal must be ASCII equivalent. For example:

string str = "Xสีน้ำเงิน";
Console.WriteLine((int)str[0]);
Console.WriteLine((int)str[1]);

will print

X
3626

Extended ASCII ranges from 0 to 255.

From default UTF-16 literal to char

Using the Symbol

char c = 'X';

Using the Unicode code

char c = '\u0058';

Using the Hexadecimal

char c = '\x0058';

Comments

[ngoozeff]

What about char sep = '\x32'; ?

[Jon Skeet]

@ngoozeff: I dislike \x for various reasons, and wouldn't suggest using it.

[Jon Skeet]

Given that we're talking about two specific values which are less than 128, the latter option seems unnecessarily long-winded. Unicode was designed to match ASCII.

[Jimbo]

LOL - It makes me depressed to give you even MORE points Jon, but thanks for the answer anyway :P

[Danon]

It's good if you want to convert more than 1 byte or an array.

[James S]

Probably clear to everyone - but just to be explicit. In the first option in this answer the number is the character code in hexidecmal. in the 2nd option it is a decimal. Obviously 1(decimal) = 1(hex) but for higher codes it isn't! eg: char c = '\u0021' is equivalent to char c = (char)33 is equivalent to char c = '!'

[Naveed Khan]

try this System.Net.WebUtility.HtmlDecode(string c);

[Jon Skeet]

@NaveedKhan: No, that won't help. This isn't about HTML encoding or decoding.

[Naveed Khan]

yes you are right but this will going to convert every asci code within a string

[Jon Skeet]

@NaveedKhan: Not in the way that the question is about.