How to decode files in Go
Chinweuba Elijah AzubuikeOverview
While creating an application, the need to decode an encoded file is inevitable. In this shot, we will learn how to decode a base64 encoded file with the help of an example. We will work with the encoded string value and decode it for practicability.
Example
package main
import (
"encoding/base64"
"io"
"os"
)
var b64 = `TWFuIGlzIGRpc3Rpbmd1aXNoZWQsIG5vdCBvbmx5IGJ5IGhpcyByZWFzb24sIGJ1dCBieSB0aGlz
IHNpbmd1bGFyIHBhc3Npb24gZnJvbSBvdGhlciBhbmltYWxzLCB3aGljaCBpcyBhIGx1c3Qgb2Yg
dGhlIG1pbmQsIHRoYXQgYnkgYSBwZXJzZXZlcmFuY2Ugb2YgZGVsaWdodCBpbiB0aGUgY29udGlu
dWVkIGFuZCBpbmRlZmF0aWdhYmxlIGdlbmVyYXRpb24gb2Yga25vd2xlZGdlLCBleGNlZWRzIHRo
ZSBzaG9ydCB2ZWhlbWVuY2Ugb2YgYW55IGNhcm5hbCBwbGVhc3VyZS4=`
func main() {
dec, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(b64)// decode string
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
f, err := os.Create("myfilename")// create a file
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
defer f.Close()
if _, err := f.Write(dec); err != nil {// write the decoded string to the new file
panic(err)
}
if err := f.Sync(); err != nil {
panic(err)
}
// got to the begginng of file
f.Seek(0, 0)
// output file contents
io.Copy(os.Stdout, f)
}Explanation
-
In lines 3-7, we import three packages:
-
encoding/base64: We use this for decoding. -
io: We use this to get the file. -
os: We use this to process the file we get.
-
import (
"encoding/base64"
"io"
"os"
)-
Line 9:
b64is the variable where we save the encoded file we will decode. -
Line 16: We decode the file using the
base64package. -
Line 21: We create a file using
os.Create(). -
Line 30: We write in the file using the
f.Write(dec). After using thewrite()method, we use thesync()method. -
Line 35: We access the file and start reading from the beginning. This is because it’s a text encoded file.
-
Line 38: We generate output from the decoded text file.
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Chinweuba Elijah AzubuikeView all Courses
