What is base64?

Base64 is a method for converting any binary data, data composed of more than simple text characters, into a simple text message, which can then be transferred via a computer network. This is what is called coding. While the output of the encoded Base64 message is not something that one can easily understand, it still consists of 64 common English characters, of which the name comes from, with another 65. The character used for special purposes. The first e -mail messages began as characters coded in the American standard information exchange code (ASCII), the encoding method used in computers to represent the English language characters as text on the display or printers. New schemes of coding have been developed as another binary information needed for browsing.

The Base64 coding method was first described in the multi -purpose internet (MIME) standard. MIME Standard methods defined methods that would not have other signs that were not asci-coded, such as alphabets used by non-English languages,As well as any other binary data, they could also be coded into ASCII sequences and transmitted via e-mail messages. Of the two primary coding means described by the MIME standard, Base64 shares a role with another known as the quoted print. While the quoted method is able to expand ASCII somewhat beyond its limited 94 printable characters, Base64 can take any bytes sequence and convert it to ASCII sequence.

Base64 must take data strings that would not otherwise meet the ASCII standard and convert them to ASCII. In addition, the method of encoding the process of collecting data into the three -byte groups is to convert to four numbers that represent the corresponding ASCII characters. Because the byte is eight bits where each bit is represented either by one or by zero, the three bytes are connected at the end of the end and the whole sequence goes to a 24 -bit buffer. 24 of them and zeros are then divided into four groups of six bits, where each is assigned numbers that correspond to the ASCII character.

because bASE64 is able to encode all binary data, the process can pass any sequence of bytes. However, there is a catch in cases where the number of bytes for coding is not divisible by three to fit the bits into the buffer. If the byte sequence contains, say, four or five bytes, it is still needed to fill in the buffer and create a whole 24 bits. In these cases, each missing byte is represented by eight 0s and is subsequently converted to padding characters in finished coding. Hence the previously mentioned 65. If the filler is required, it will only appear at the very end of the coding.

Although Base64 was originally designed to transmit binary data via e -mail messages, its use has entered the game in many other areas except MIME. One such relatively common use is the web database and the data encoding application to create a uniform resource locator (URL) on the web form. Expandable brandOvation language (XML) also uses a variant that allows binary data such as small images to include in XML documents. There are other variants for encryption methods and other security -related techniques such as hiding passwords.