Base64 string Decoded to NSData and encoding to UTF-8

Question

I get a base64 encoded string from out servers. I decode it to base64:

DLog(@"parseing string to data: %@", value);

NSData *decodedData = [[NSData alloc] initWithBase64EncodedString:value options:0];
DLog(@"decoded value: %@", decodedData);

NSString *encodedString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:decodedData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
DLog(@"encodedString: %@", encodedString);

Log:

parseing string to data: UEsDBBQAAAAIACmEAUlpoChO7hYAAIHNBgAGABwAc20uZGJmVVQJAAMdwJ9XHcCfV3V4CwABBOcDAAAE5wMAAO2dzaokxxFGr5AX9sLv0N61wRSVWf...>

decoded value: <504b0304 14000000 08002984 014969a0 284eee16 000081cd 06000600 1c00736d 2e646266 55540900 031dc09f 571dc09f 5775780b 000104e7 03000004 e7030000...>

encodedString: (null)

But my sting is always null.

Why could this be happening?

Answer 1

The initWithData documentation says:

Returns nil if the initialization fails for some reason (for example if data does not represent valid data for encoding).

Try to begin with a valid string, convert it into data, print it to the log and compare vs. the data that you get from initWithBase64EncodedString.