Demystifying Base64: How Binary-to-Text Encoding Works

What is Base64?

Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme. It represents binary data (like images or zip files) using a set of 64 ASCII characters. This makes it safe to transmit data across systems that only handle plain text, such as XML or JSON APIs.

How It Works

Base64 takes three bytes of binary data (24 bits) and splits them into four 6-bit chunks. Each 6-bit value is then mapped to one of the 64 characters in the Base64 alphabet. If the input data is not divisible by three, padding characters (=) are appended to the end.