C# byte array problem

Question

I found this code snippet on a blog as a "Convert Binary data to text"

Byte[] arrByte = {0,0,0,1,0,1};

string x = Convert.ToBase64String(arrByte);
System: Console.WriteLine(x);

And this provides a output of AAAAAQAB ..

What is not clear is that how 000101 -> is mapped to AAAAAQAB, and will I able to use this to all a-z characters as a binary equivalent and how? or is there a any other method ?

Answer 1

Actually 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000001 00000000 00000001 is mapped to AAAAAQAB because base64 uses 6 bits per letter so:

000000 = A (0)
000000 = A
000000 = A
000000 = A
000000 = A
010000 = Q  (16)
000000 = A
000001 = B  (1)

See this Wikipedia article for more details.