guid to base64, for URL

Question: is there a better way to do that?

VB.Net

Function GuidToBase64(ByVal guid As Guid) As String
    Return Convert.ToBase64String(guid.ToByteArray).Replace("/", "-").Replace("+", "_").Replace("=", "")
End Function

Function Base64ToGuid(ByVal base64 As String) As Guid
    Dim guid As Guid
    base64 = base64.Replace("-", "/").Replace("_", "+") & "=="

    Try
        guid = New Guid(Convert.FromBase64String(base64))
    Catch ex As Exception
        Throw New Exception("Bad Base64 conversion to GUID", ex)
    End Try

    Return guid
End Function

C#

public string GuidToBase64(Guid guid)
{
    return Convert.ToBase64String(guid.ToByteArray()).Replace("/", "-").Replace("+", "_").Replace("=", "");
}

public Guid Base64ToGuid(string base64)
{
   Guid guid = default(Guid);
   base64 = base64.Replace("-", "/").Replace("_", "+") + "==";

   try {
       guid = new Guid(Convert.FromBase64String(base64));
   }
   catch (Exception ex) {
       throw new Exception("Bad Base64 conversion to GUID", ex);
   }

   return guid;
}

You might want to check out this site: http://prettycode.org/2009/11/12/short-guid/

It looks very close to what you're doing.

public class ShortGuid
{
    private readonly Guid guid;
    private readonly string value;

    /// <summary>Create a 22-character case-sensitive short GUID.</summary>
    public ShortGuid(Guid guid)
    {
        if (guid == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("guid");
        }

        this.guid = guid;
        this.value = Convert.ToBase64String(guid.ToByteArray())
            .Substring(0, 22)
            .Replace("/", "_")
            .Replace("+", "-");
    }

    /// <summary>Get the short GUID as a string.</summary>
    public override string ToString()
    {
        return this.value;
    }

    /// <summary>Get the Guid object from which the short GUID was created.</summary>
    public Guid ToGuid()
    {
        return this.guid;
    }

    /// <summary>Get a short GUID as a Guid object.</summary>
    /// <exception cref="System.ArgumentNullException"></exception>
    /// <exception cref="System.FormatException"></exception>
    public static ShortGuid Parse(string shortGuid)
    {
        if (shortGuid == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("shortGuid");
        }
        else if (shortGuid.Length != 22)
        {
            throw new FormatException("Input string was not in a correct format.");
        }

        return new ShortGuid(new Guid(Convert.FromBase64String
            (shortGuid.Replace("_", "/").Replace("-", "+") + "==")));
    }

    public static implicit operator String(ShortGuid guid)
    {
        return guid.ToString();
    }

    public static implicit operator Guid(ShortGuid shortGuid)
    {
        return shortGuid.guid;
    }
}

One problem with using this technique to format a GUID for use in a URL or filename is that two distinct GUIDs can produce two values that differ only in case, e.g.:

    var b1 = GuidToBase64(new Guid("c9d045f3-e21c-46d0-971d-b92ebc2ab83c"));
    var b2 = GuidToBase64(new Guid("c9d045f3-e21c-46d0-971d-b92ebc2ab8a4"));
    Console.WriteLine(b1);  // 80XQyRzi0EaXHbkuvCq4PA
    Console.WriteLine(b2);  // 80XQyRzi0EaXHbkuvCq4pA

Since URLs are sometimes interpreted as being case-insensitive, and in Windows file paths and filenames are case-insensitive. this could lead to collisions.

I understand that the reason you are clipping == in the end is that because you can be certain that for GUID (of 16 bytes), encoded string will always end with ==. So 2 characters can be saved in every conversion.

Beside the point @Skurmedal already mentioned (should throw an exception in case of invalid string as input), I think the code you posted is just good enough.

If your method cannot convert the Base64 passed to it to a GUID, shouldn't you throw an exception? The data passed to the method is clearly erronous.