Qt C++ QString to QByteArray Conversion

Question

I have created an encrypt/decrypt program, when encrypting I store the encrypted QByteArray in a text file.

When trying to decrypt I retrieved it and then put it into the decryption method, the problem is that I need a way to convert it to QByteArray without changing the format, otherwise it will not decrypt properly. What I mean is if the file gave me an encrypted value of 1234 and I converted that to QByteArray by going 1234.toLatin1() it changes the value and the decryption does not work. Any suggestions?

My Code:

QFile file(filename);
    QString encrypted;
    QString content;
    if (file.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly)) {
        QTextStream stream( &file );
        content = stream.readAll();
    }
    encrypted = content.replace("\n", "");
    qDebug() << encrypted; // Returns correct encrypted value
    QByteArray a;
    a += encrypted;
    qDebug() << "2 " + a; // Returns different value than previous qDebug()
    QByteArray decrypted = crypto.Decrypt(a, key);
    return decrypted;

Solution 1

I guess you should use:

QString::fromUtf8(const QByteArray &str)

Or:

QString::QString(const QByteArray &ba)

to convert QByteArray to QString, then write it into file by QTextStream.
After that, read file by QTextStream, use:

QString::toUtf8()

to convert QString to QByteArray.

QString::QString(const QByteArray &ba)

Constructs a string initialized with the byte array ba. The given byte array is converted to Unicode using fromUtf8().

P.S: Maybe use QFile::write and QFile::read is a better way.

Solution 2

try using toLocal8Bit() .. it works fine with me

Solution 3

There's a simple way :

   QByteArray ba;
   QString qs = "String";
   ba += qs;

More hard way:

QByteArray ba;
QDataStream in(&ba, QIODevice::WriteOnly);
in << QString("String");

Extreme way, for people who want to use QBuffer:

#include <QDebug>
#include <QBuffer>
#include <QDataStream>
#include <QIODevice>
#include <QByteArray>
#include <QString>
#include <qcoreapplication.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
   QCoreApplication a(argc, argv);
   QByteArray byteArray;
   QBuffer buffer(&byteArray);
   buffer.open(QIODevice::ReadWrite);
   QDataStream in( &buffer );
   in << QString("String");
   buffer.close();
   for (int i = 0; i < byteArray.length(); ++i) {
      printf("%c - %x\n", byteArray.at(i), byteArray.at(i));
   }
   printf("\n");
return a.exec();
}

Who run last code can ask me where does the null byte come from?

QDataStream serializes the QString as a little-endian. 4 bytes are read to create the 32-bit length value, followed by the string itself in UTF-16. This string length in UTF-16 is 12 bytes, so the first three bytes in QByteArray will be zero.

There is often a problem with reading the QByteArray in qDebug () The recording is fine. Don't forget to remove QT_NO_CAST_FROM_BYTEARRAY in your .pro file, if it has