Convert a String to a Byte Array in C#

Here is an easy way to convert a string to a byte array. In another article, Convert a Byte Array to a String in C#, I show how to go from a byte array back to a string.

First, you'll need this enum:

#region EncodingType enum
/// <summary>
/// Encoding Types.
/// </summary>
public enum EncodingType
{
    ASCII,
    Unicode,
    UTF7,
    UTF8
}
#endregion

Then this function: 

#region StringToByteArray
/// <summary>
/// Converts a string to a byte array using specified encoding.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="str">String to be converted.</param>
/// <param name="encodingType">EncodingType enum.</param>
/// <returns>byte array</returns>
public static byte[] StringToByteArray(string str, EncodingType encodingType)
{
    System.Text.Encoding encoding=null;
    switch (encodingType)
    {
        case EncodingType.ASCII:
            encoding=new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();
            break;   
        case EncodingType.Unicode:
            encoding=new System.Text.UnicodeEncoding();
            break;   
        case EncodingType.UTF7:
            encoding=new System.Text.UTF7Encoding();
            break;   
        case EncodingType.UTF8:
            encoding=new System.Text.UTF8Encoding();
            break;   
    }
    return encoding.GetBytes(str);
}
#endregion