title: String representation of byte array
body: <p>I have a string that represents a byte  </p>
  
  <pre><code>string s = "\x00af";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I write this string to a file so the file contains the literal "\x00af" and not the byte it represents, later I read this string from the file, how can I now treat this string as byte again (and not the literal)?</p>
  
  <p>Here is a sample code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public static void StringAndBytes()
  {
      string s = "\x00af";
      byte[] b = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(s);
  
      // Length would be 1
      Console.WriteLine(b.Length);
  
      // Write this to a file as literal
      StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter("c:\\temp\\MyTry.txt");
      sw.WriteLine("\\x00af");
      sw.Close();
  
      // Read it from the file
      StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("c:\\temp\\MyTry.txt");
      s = sr.ReadLine();
      sr.Close();
  
      // Get the bytes and Length would be 6, as it treat the string as string
      // and not the byte it represents
      b = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(s);
      Console.WriteLine(b.Length);
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any idea on how I convert the string from being a text to the string representing a byte?  Thx!</p>