Convert-Data Cmdlet

Parameters   Output Objects   Config Settings  

The Convert-Data component is used to encode or decode data from one format to another.

Syntax

Convert-Data [parameters]

Remarks

The data to encode or decode is specified by Data. If decoding, the format to use is set in the From parameter and when encoding, the format to use is set in the To argument. If both are specified, the data will be decoded using the format specified in From and encoded to the format specified in To.

Example The cmdlets support pipeline input for some of their parameters. Prebuilding an object and piping it to the cmdlet is very useful, but should be used with caution to prevent security conflicts. Steps have been taken to decrease the risk of a possibly accidental pipe to the cmdlet, for instance, the Credential parameter cannot be piped to the cmdlet and must be specified manually.

# encoding convert-data -data test -to base64 # decoding convert-data -data dGVzdA== -from base64

Parameter List

The following is the full list of the parameters of the cmdlet with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

LogFileThe location of a file to which debug information is written.
CharsetThe character set of the data.
ConfigSpecifies one or more configuration settings.
DataThe data to encode or decode.
DataBThe data to encode or decode.
FromThe format to decode Data with.
LogFileThe location of a file to which debug information is written.
ToThe format to encode Data into.

Output Objects

The following is the full list of the output objects returned by the cmdlet with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

ConvertedDataThis object contains the converted data.

Config Settings

The following is a list of config settings for the cmdlet with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

Base64LineBreakTells the component whether to include line breaks in Base64 encoded content or not.
CharsetSpecifies the charset used when encoding or decoding data.
EncodeHashWhether the hash value is hex encoded.
HMACAlgorithmThe hash algorithm to use when generating a Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC).
HMACKeyA key to use when generating a Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC).
MaxFileSizeWhen encoding, controls whether encoded data should be split into several files and gives the maximum allowed size for these files.
UseExtendedHexBase32Specifies whether or not the Extended Hex alphabet is used.
UseModifiedUTF7Specifies whether or not a modified form of UTF-7 for IMAP mailbox naming is used.
BuildInfoInformation about the product's build.
CodePageThe system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations.
LicenseInfoInformation about the current license.
MaskSensitiveWhether sensitive data is masked in log messages.
UseInternalSecurityAPITells the component whether or not to use the system security libraries or an internal implementation.

LogFile Parameter (Convert-Data Cmdlet)

The location of a file to which debug information is written.

Syntax

Convert-Data -LogFile string

Remarks

When specified, the cmdlet will log debug information to the file. If the file exists, the information will be appended.

Default Value

null

Charset Property (Convert-Data Cmdlet)

The character set of the data.

Syntax

Convert-Data -Charset string

Remarks

Allows you to specify the character set of the data. By default, the parameter is an empty string ("") and will use the platform's current character set.

Default Value

""

Config Property (Convert-Data Cmdlet)

Specifies one or more configuration settings.

Syntax

Convert-Data -Config string[]

Remarks

The Config parameter takes one or more name-value pairs that represent the name of the configuration setting and value, i.e.: -config "Name=Value"

Default Value

null

Data Property (Convert-Data Cmdlet)

The data to encode or decode.

Syntax

Convert-Data -Data string

Remarks

Data contains the data you wish to be encoded or decoded. The format for decoding is set in From and the format for encoding is set in To.

Default Value

""

Parameter Position

0

DataB Property (Convert-Data Cmdlet)

The data to encode or decode.

Syntax

Convert-Data -DataB byte[]

Remarks

DataB contains the data you wish to be encoded or decoded. The format for decoding is set in From and the format for encoding is set in To.

Default Value

null

From Property (Convert-Data Cmdlet)

The format to decode Data with.

Syntax

Convert-Data -From string

Remarks

The following list contains all of the possible encoding types and their corresponding descriptions:

PlainPlain text.
UUEncode3 Bytes are encoded into 4 readable characters.
BASE64 Encoding format of MIME. Much like UUEncode but another subset of printable characters is used.
QP Another MIME format coding only special characters. Mostly used if the text contains special accented characters.
URL Encoding of non-printable, 8-bit or unsafe characters as defined in RFC 1738.
JIS Japanese Industrial Standards encoding of Japanese character sets.
YEncodeSimilar to Base64, but uses 8-bit encoding to reduce the amount of data being sent and received. Designed for binaries on the Usenet or Email.
MD5The Message Digest 5 hashing algorithm produces a 128-bit hash output (Applicable only when -to is used).
SHA1The Secure Hash Algorithm produces a 128-bit hash output (Applicable only when -to is used).
HEX Creates a hexadecimal string representation of the decoded data.
SHA256 The Secure Hash Algorithm produces a 256-bit hash output (Applicable only when -to is used)

Default Value

99

LogFile Property (Convert-Data Cmdlet)

The location of a file to which debug information is written.

Syntax

Convert-Data -LogFile string

Remarks

When specified, the cmdlet will log debug information to the file. If the file exists, the information will be appended.

Default Value

""

To Property (Convert-Data Cmdlet)

The format to encode Data into.

Syntax

Convert-Data -To string

Remarks

The following list contains all of the possible encoding types and their corresponding descriptions:

PlainPlain text.
UUEncode3 Bytes are encoded into 4 readable characters.
BASE64 Encoding format of MIME. Much like UUEncode but another subset of printable characters is used.
QP Another MIME format coding only special characters. Mostly used if the text contains special accented characters.
URL Encoding of non-printable, 8-bit or unsafe characters as defined in RFC 1738.
JIS Japanese Industrial Standards encoding of Japanese character sets.
YEncodeSimilar to Base64, but uses 8-bit encoding to reduce the amount of data being sent and received. Designed for binaries on the Usenet or Email.
MD5The Message Digest 5 hashing algorithm produces a 128-bit hash output (Applicable only when -to is used).
SHA1The Secure Hash Algorithm produces a 128-bit hash output (Applicable only when -to is used).
HEX Creates a hexadecimal string representation of the decoded data.
SHA256 The Secure Hash Algorithm produces a 256-bit hash output (Applicable only when -to is used)

Default Value

99

ConvertedData Output Object (Convert-Data Cmdlet)

This object contains the converted data.

Syntax

Object ConvertedData {
   string Data;
   int Size;
   string Format;
   byte[] DataB;
}

Remarks

After encoding or decoding the Data, the results are returned in a ConvertedData object. The converted data is returned in Data, and the length of that data is returned as Size. The Format indicates the encoding format of the resulting Data.

The following list contains all of the possible encoding types and their corresponding descriptions:

PlainPlain text.
UUEncode3 Bytes are encoded into 4 readable characters.
BASE64 Encoding format of MIME. Much like UUEncode but another subset of printable characters is used.
QP Another MIME format coding only special characters. Mostly used if the text contains special accented characters.
URL Encoding of non-printable, 8-bit or unsafe characters as defined in RFC 1738.
JIS Japanese Industrial Standards encoding of Japanese character sets.
YEncodeSimilar to Base64, but uses 8-bit encoding to reduce the amount of data being sent and received. Designed for binaries on the Usenet or Email.
MD5The Message Digest 5 hashing algorithm produces a 128-bit hash output (Applicable only when -to is used).
SHA1The Secure Hash Algorithm produces a 128-bit hash output (Applicable only when -to is used).
HEX Creates a hexadecimal string representation of the decoded data.
SHA256 The Secure Hash Algorithm produces a 256-bit hash output (Applicable only when -to is used)

Config Settings (Convert-Data Cmdlet)

The cmdlet accepts one or more of the following configuration settings. Configuration settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the cmdlet, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.

NetCode Config Settings

Base64LineBreak:   Tells the cmdlet whether to include line breaks in Base64 encoded content or not.

By default, when encoding to Base64 format, the component will insert line breaks every 76 characters. Setting the Base64LineBreak configuration setting to False will cause these line breaks to be omitted from the Base64 encoded content. The default value is True.

Charset:   Specifies the charset used when encoding or decoding data.

This configuration setting sets the value to specify the charset that is used when encoding data. For instance, UTF-8.

EncodeHash:   Whether the hash value is hex encoded.

This setting determines whether the MD5, SHA1, or SHA256 hash value is hex encoded. When calling Encode, if this setting is True (default), the hash value created will be hex encoded. When set to False, the output will not be hex encoded and will be binary. This is applicable only to the following formats:

  • MD5
  • SHA1
  • SHA256

HMACAlgorithm:   The hash algorithm to use when generating a Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC).

HMACAlgorithm is used to tell the cmdlet which hashing algorithm to use to generate the Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC). HMACAlgorithm can be "SHA1" (Secure Hash Algorithm 1), "MD5" (Message Digest 5), or one of the SHA-2 algorithms mentioned next. You may truncate the hash output by specifying the desired number of bits. For instance, "SHA1-96" and "MD5-96" are acceptable.

The component is capable of utilizing the set of HMAC SHA-2 algorithms ("SHA-224", "SHA-256", "SHA-384", and "SHA-512").

The component also supports "RIPEMD160" as an HMAC algorithm.

HMACKey:   A key to use when generating a Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC).

When using the Format fmtHMAC, it may be necessary to supply the cmdlet with a key to use when generating the Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC). This key is incorporated into the hashing process to add entropy to the resulting hash code, making the plaintext harder to guess and increasing the message security. You may also set this to a hex value. For instance, 0xAAAAAA is acceptable.

MaxFileSize:   When encoding, controls whether encoded data should be split into several files and gives the maximum allowed size for these files.

Some mailing systems require that the message size should not exceed a certain size. Assigning a nonzero value to MaxFileSize makes the cmdlet split the encoded data into several files. FileCnt will contain the number of files created. Please refer to EncodedFile for filename conventions.

The default value for this setting is 0 (no limit).

Note: If a non-zero value is assigned to MaxFileSize, then a multiple filename should also be assigned to EncodedFile (end with question marks "?") so that the cmdlet can expand the filenames.

Please refer to the Error Codes section for a complete list of possible errors.

UseExtendedHexBase32:   Specifies whether or not the Extended Hex alphabet is used.

When Format is set to fmtBase32, UseExtendedHexBase32 is used to tell the cmdlet whether or not to use the extended hex alphabet. The default value is False.

UseModifiedUTF7:   Specifies whether or not a modified form of UTF-7 for IMAP mailbox naming is used.

When Format is set to fmtUTF7, UseModifiedUTF7 is used to tell the cmdlet whether or not to use a modified version of UTF-7 for IMAP mailbox naming. The default value is False.

Base Config Settings

BuildInfo:   Information about the product's build.

When queried, this setting will return a string containing information about the product's build.

CodePage:   The system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations.

The default code page is Unicode UTF-8 (65001).

The following is a list of valid code page identifiers:

IdentifierName
037IBM EBCDIC - U.S./Canada
437OEM - United States
500IBM EBCDIC - International
708Arabic - ASMO 708
709Arabic - ASMO 449+, BCON V4
710Arabic - Transparent Arabic
720Arabic - Transparent ASMO
737OEM - Greek (formerly 437G)
775OEM - Baltic
850OEM - Multilingual Latin I
852OEM - Latin II
855OEM - Cyrillic (primarily Russian)
857OEM - Turkish
858OEM - Multilingual Latin I + Euro symbol
860OEM - Portuguese
861OEM - Icelandic
862OEM - Hebrew
863OEM - Canadian-French
864OEM - Arabic
865OEM - Nordic
866OEM - Russian
869OEM - Modern Greek
870IBM EBCDIC - Multilingual/ROECE (Latin-2)
874ANSI/OEM - Thai (same as 28605, ISO 8859-15)
875IBM EBCDIC - Modern Greek
932ANSI/OEM - Japanese, Shift-JIS
936ANSI/OEM - Simplified Chinese (PRC, Singapore)
949ANSI/OEM - Korean (Unified Hangul Code)
950ANSI/OEM - Traditional Chinese (Taiwan; Hong Kong SAR, PRC)
1026IBM EBCDIC - Turkish (Latin-5)
1047IBM EBCDIC - Latin 1/Open System
1140IBM EBCDIC - U.S./Canada (037 + Euro symbol)
1141IBM EBCDIC - Germany (20273 + Euro symbol)
1142IBM EBCDIC - Denmark/Norway (20277 + Euro symbol)
1143IBM EBCDIC - Finland/Sweden (20278 + Euro symbol)
1144IBM EBCDIC - Italy (20280 + Euro symbol)
1145IBM EBCDIC - Latin America/Spain (20284 + Euro symbol)
1146IBM EBCDIC - United Kingdom (20285 + Euro symbol)
1147IBM EBCDIC - France (20297 + Euro symbol)
1148IBM EBCDIC - International (500 + Euro symbol)
1149IBM EBCDIC - Icelandic (20871 + Euro symbol)
1200Unicode UCS-2 Little-Endian (BMP of ISO 10646)
1201Unicode UCS-2 Big-Endian
1250ANSI - Central European
1251ANSI - Cyrillic
1252ANSI - Latin I
1253ANSI - Greek
1254ANSI - Turkish
1255ANSI - Hebrew
1256ANSI - Arabic
1257ANSI - Baltic
1258ANSI/OEM - Vietnamese
1361Korean (Johab)
10000MAC - Roman
10001MAC - Japanese
10002MAC - Traditional Chinese (Big5)
10003MAC - Korean
10004MAC - Arabic
10005MAC - Hebrew
10006MAC - Greek I
10007MAC - Cyrillic
10008MAC - Simplified Chinese (GB 2312)
10010MAC - Romania
10017MAC - Ukraine
10021MAC - Thai
10029MAC - Latin II
10079MAC - Icelandic
10081MAC - Turkish
10082MAC - Croatia
12000Unicode UCS-4 Little-Endian
12001Unicode UCS-4 Big-Endian
20000CNS - Taiwan
20001TCA - Taiwan
20002Eten - Taiwan
20003IBM5550 - Taiwan
20004TeleText - Taiwan
20005Wang - Taiwan
20105IA5 IRV International Alphabet No. 5 (7-bit)
20106IA5 German (7-bit)
20107IA5 Swedish (7-bit)
20108IA5 Norwegian (7-bit)
20127US-ASCII (7-bit)
20261T.61
20269ISO 6937 Non-Spacing Accent
20273IBM EBCDIC - Germany
20277IBM EBCDIC - Denmark/Norway
20278IBM EBCDIC - Finland/Sweden
20280IBM EBCDIC - Italy
20284IBM EBCDIC - Latin America/Spain
20285IBM EBCDIC - United Kingdom
20290IBM EBCDIC - Japanese Katakana Extended
20297IBM EBCDIC - France
20420IBM EBCDIC - Arabic
20423IBM EBCDIC - Greek
20424IBM EBCDIC - Hebrew
20833IBM EBCDIC - Korean Extended
20838IBM EBCDIC - Thai
20866Russian - KOI8-R
20871IBM EBCDIC - Icelandic
20880IBM EBCDIC - Cyrillic (Russian)
20905IBM EBCDIC - Turkish
20924IBM EBCDIC - Latin-1/Open System (1047 + Euro symbol)
20932JIS X 0208-1990 & 0121-1990
20936Simplified Chinese (GB2312)
21025IBM EBCDIC - Cyrillic (Serbian, Bulgarian)
21027Extended Alpha Lowercase
21866Ukrainian (KOI8-U)
28591ISO 8859-1 Latin I
28592ISO 8859-2 Central Europe
28593ISO 8859-3 Latin 3
28594ISO 8859-4 Baltic
28595ISO 8859-5 Cyrillic
28596ISO 8859-6 Arabic
28597ISO 8859-7 Greek
28598ISO 8859-8 Hebrew
28599ISO 8859-9 Latin 5
28605ISO 8859-15 Latin 9
29001Europa 3
38598ISO 8859-8 Hebrew
50220ISO 2022 Japanese with no halfwidth Katakana
50221ISO 2022 Japanese with halfwidth Katakana
50222ISO 2022 Japanese JIS X 0201-1989
50225ISO 2022 Korean
50227ISO 2022 Simplified Chinese
50229ISO 2022 Traditional Chinese
50930Japanese (Katakana) Extended
50931US/Canada and Japanese
50933Korean Extended and Korean
50935Simplified Chinese Extended and Simplified Chinese
50936Simplified Chinese
50937US/Canada and Traditional Chinese
50939Japanese (Latin) Extended and Japanese
51932EUC - Japanese
51936EUC - Simplified Chinese
51949EUC - Korean
51950EUC - Traditional Chinese
52936HZ-GB2312 Simplified Chinese
54936Windows XP: GB18030 Simplified Chinese (4 Byte)
57002ISCII Devanagari
57003ISCII Bengali
57004ISCII Tamil
57005ISCII Telugu
57006ISCII Assamese
57007ISCII Oriya
57008ISCII Kannada
57009ISCII Malayalam
57010ISCII Gujarati
57011ISCII Punjabi
65000Unicode UTF-7
65001Unicode UTF-8
The following is a list of valid code page identifiers for Mac OS only:
IdentifierName
1ASCII
2NEXTSTEP
3JapaneseEUC
4UTF8
5ISOLatin1
6Symbol
7NonLossyASCII
8ShiftJIS
9ISOLatin2
10Unicode
11WindowsCP1251
12WindowsCP1252
13WindowsCP1253
14WindowsCP1254
15WindowsCP1250
21ISO2022JP
30MacOSRoman
10UTF16String
0x90000100UTF16BigEndian
0x94000100UTF16LittleEndian
0x8c000100UTF32String
0x98000100UTF32BigEndian
0x9c000100UTF32LittleEndian
65536Proprietary

LicenseInfo:   Information about the current license.

When queried, this setting will return a string containing information about the license this instance of a cmdlet is using. It will return the following information:

  • Product: The product the license is for.
  • Product Key: The key the license was generated from.
  • License Source: Where the license was found (e.g., RuntimeLicense, License File).
  • License Type: The type of license installed (e.g., Royalty Free, Single Server).
  • Last Valid Build: The last valid build number for which the license will work.
MaskSensitive:   Whether sensitive data is masked in log messages.

In certain circumstances it may be beneficial to mask sensitive data, like passwords, in log messages. Set this to true to mask sensitive data. The default is true.

This setting only works on these cmdlets: AS3Receiver, AS3Sender, Atom, Client(3DS), FTP, FTPServer, IMAP, OFTPClient, SSHClient, SCP, Server(3DS), Sexec, SFTP, SFTPServer, SSHServer, TCPClient, TCPServer.

UseInternalSecurityAPI:   Whether or not to use the system security libraries or an internal implementation.

When set to false, the cmdlet will use the system security libraries by default to perform cryptographic functions where applicable. In this case, calls to unmanaged code will be made. In certain environments, this is not desirable. To use a completely managed security implementation, set this setting to true.

Setting this configuration setting to true tells the cmdlet to use the internal implementation instead of using the system security libraries.

On Windows, this setting is set to false by default. On Linux/macOS, this setting is set to true by default.

If using the .NET Standard Library, this setting will be true on all platforms. The .NET Standard library does not support using the system security libraries.

Note: This setting is static. The value set is applicable to all cmdlets used in the application.

When this value is set, the product's system dynamic link library (DLL) is no longer required as a reference, as all unmanaged code is stored in that file.