Difference between basic and url base64 encoding in Java 8

Question

The Java 8 Base64 library has two variants that can be used in URI building: the "Basic" one and the "URL and Filename safe". The documentation points to RFC 4648 Table 2 as an explanation for the differences.

After reading the spec it still isn't clear to me what the practical difference is between both encodings: are both standards "widely" supported? What about browsers specifically? Is the URL and filename safe encoding recommended for data URI encoding? Are there known support limitations?

Answer 1

The easiest way is to provide an example(IMHO):

    Base64.Encoder enc = Base64.getEncoder();
    Base64.Encoder encURL = Base64.getUrlEncoder();

    byte[] bytes = enc.encode("subjects?_d".getBytes());
    byte[] bytesURL = encURL.encode("subjects?_d".getBytes());

    System.out.println(new String(bytes)); // c3ViamVjdHM/X2Q=      notice the "/"
    System.out.println(new String(bytesURL)); // c3ViamVjdHM_X2Q=   notice the "_"

    Base64.Decoder dec = Base64.getDecoder();
    Base64.Decoder decURL = Base64.getUrlDecoder();

    byte[] decodedURL = decURL.decode(bytesURL);
    byte[] decoded = dec.decode(bytes);

    System.out.println(new String(decodedURL));
    System.out.println(new String(decoded));

Notice how one is URL safe and the other is not.

As a matter of fact if you look at the implementation, there are two look-up tables used for encoding: toBase64 and toBase64URL. There are two characters only that differ for them:

+ and / for toBase64 versus - and _ for toBase64URL.

So it seems that your question is one URI safe and should be used there?; the answer is yes.