Base64 Utilities Guide¶

The Base64Utils component (siddiqsoft/base64-utils.hpp) provides fast, safe Base64 encoding and decoding as well as RFC 4648 URL escaping.

Core Operations¶

Base64 Encoding¶

Encodes raw binary data or strings into Base64 format.

#include "siddiqsoft/base64-utils.hpp"

std::string raw = "Azure C++ Utilities";
std::string encoded = siddiqsoft::Base64Utils::encode(raw);

Base64 Decoding¶

Decodes a Base64-encoded string back into raw binary bytes.

#include "siddiqsoft/base64-utils.hpp"

std::string b64 = "QXp1cmUgQysrIFV0aWxpdGllcw==";
std::string decoded = siddiqsoft::Base64Utils::decode(b64);

RFC 4648 URL Escaping¶

When sending Base64 strings in URL query parameters, special characters like +, /, and = must be converted per RFC 4648 Section 5.

#include "siddiqsoft/base64-utils.hpp"

std::string b64 = "abc+def/ghi==";

// Replaces '+' with '-', '/' with '_', and strips '\r', '\n', '='
std::string urlSafeB64 = siddiqsoft::Base64Utils::urlEscape(b64);
// Result: "abc-def_ghi"

Platform Native Implementations

Windows: Uses Win32 CryptoAPI functions (CryptBinaryToStringA/CryptBinaryToStringW and CryptStringToBinaryA/CryptStringToBinaryW).
Linux/macOS: Uses OpenSSL EVP_EncodeBlock and EVP_DecodeBlock.