Convert byte array to a String

Question

I'm trying to convert a byte array to a String and writing it to a file using PrintWriter (only to check it's value with mc, i need the content in String) My problem summed up:

//-77 is "equivalent" to 179 or 0xb3 (i also tried those using ByteArrayOutputStream, where these are valid values)
byte[] b = new byte[]{0,0,1,-77};

//I save the String to a txt, so i can check its value with midnight commander
try(  PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter("~/Desktop/output.txt")){
    out.println( new String(b) );
}

The output.txt's content as hex with mc: 00 00 01 EF | BF BD 0A
Despite it should be: 00 00 01 B3

What causes this? I guess it's the encoding, but I don't know what type of encoding should I use (i tried some Cp### types, but none of them works so far).

UPDATE:
Every negative byte converted to String like this will result: EF BF BD
So it only works if the unsigned byte value is less than 128. So the question is how can i represent a byte greater than 127 in String like i did with 0-127 bytes?

You should probably encode the bytes, as opposed to trying to use them as if they were a string. You should only use new String(byte[]) when the byte array is a valid encoding of a string. — RealSkeptic
– RealSkeptic, Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 11:08
Perhaps your byte array is signed. Try using unisgned byte[]. — user2233125
– user2233125, Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 11:20
Which encoding are your four input bytes in? If you can't answer that question, then String is not the right data type for you to use — Erwin Bolwidt
– Erwin Bolwidt, Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 11:43
Java doesn't have unsigned byte. I cannot just post a byte array, it needs to be a String. The shown code above is an example, but i need to send exact given bytes (as a String) so i cannot encode it. I have been using this type of conversion for circa 2 weeks and it works as it should be most of the time. This 0xb3 is the only value (so far) which causes the problem. — leviathan11
– leviathan11, Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 11:45

Davide Spataro · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-14 11:37:38Z

2

This will do the trick. It will output 00 00 01 b3 as expected.

FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("filename");
fos.write(b);
fos.close();

edited Jun 14, 2017 at 11:37

answered Jun 14, 2017 at 11:20

Davide Spataro

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3 Comments

leviathan11 Over a year ago

Thank you for the quick answer, it really did the trick. But writing it to a txt is just for testing purposes, i need its value as a String. Is there something similar to FileOutputStream for String? Or should i just read back the txt-s content? (That doesn't seem too optimal)

user207421 Over a year ago

@leviathan11 That is a brand new question. Nobody will ever see it as a comment to an answer to a different question.

leviathan11 Over a year ago

That was exactly my original question, but as this is my very fist post on stackoverflow i couldn't really compose it, so it got edited mispointing the topic.

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