The Base64 encoding
Like Base32, Base64 is anencoding designed to represent arbitrary binary data in a consitently text-based format. This is useful when tramsitting data in ways that may require a text-based representation. A common use case of Base64 is the encoding of binary assets like images or executables in text files.
Base64 uses an alphabet with 64 possible values, encoding 6-bit (26) values. This means that Base64 will encode 4 values for each group of 3 bytes. The most common Base64 alphabet, defined by RFC 4648 §4, is shown below. Other common variants include Base64url, the MIME transfer encoding, and the obsolete Base64 for Privacy-Enhanced Mail.
Value | Mark | Value | Mark | Value | Mark | Value | Mark | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | A | 16 | Q | 32 | g | 48 | w | |||
1 | B | 17 | R | 33 | h | 49 | x | |||
2 | C | 18 | S | 34 | i | 50 | y | |||
3 | D | 19 | T | 35 | j | 50 | y | |||
4 | E | 20 | U | 36 | k | 51 | z | |||
5 | F | 21 | V | 37 | l | 52 | 0 | |||
6 | G | 22 | W | 38 | m | 54 | 2 | |||
7 | H | 23 | X | 39 | n | 55 | 3 | |||
8 | I | 24 | Y | 40 | o | 56 | 4 | |||
9 | J | 25 | Z | 41 | p | 57 | 5 | |||
10 | K | 26 | a | 42 | q | 58 | 6 | |||
11 | L | 27 | b | 43 | r | 59 | 7 | |||
12 | M | 28 | c | 44 | s | 60 | 8 | |||
13 | N | 29 | d | 45 | t | 61 | 9 | |||
14 | O | 30 | e | 46 | u | 62 | + | |||
15 | P | 31 | f | 47 | v | 63 | / | |||
padding | = |