Actionscript ByteArray (from NFC) to String - actionscript

Question

I'm reading an NFC tag in my Adobe AIR mobile app. The data is read as a ByteArray, but I'm having difficulty pulling the full text. The sample text on the tag is "http://www.google.com"
Using this method, I get a portion of the String "http://www.goog", but not all of it. I'm assuming because each character is not a single byte:
private static function convertToString(byte_array : ByteArray) : String {
var arr : Array = [];
for (var i : Number = 1 ; i <= byte_array.bytesAvailable; i++) {
arr.push(byte_array.readUTFBytes(i));
}
var finalString : String = "";
for (var t : Number = 0; t < arr.length;t++) {
finalString = finalString + arr[t].toString();
}
return finalString;
}
I've also tried the method below, but it returns null:
bytes.readUTF();
I'm wondering if I need to convert the byteArray to a base64 string and then decode that. It seems like an extra step, but that's how I've done it before when sending data to/from a server using AMFPHP.
Thanks in advance for any input.

Answer 1

You could even simplify this code by simply calling
private static function convertToString(bytes:ByteArray):String {
bytes.position = 0;
var str:String = bytes.readUTFBytes(bytes.length);
return str;
}
This way you will read all contents of the bytearray in one single method call into your destination string.

Answer 2

Figured it out in the code below.
There were 2 errors, plus some cleanup:
private static function convertToString(bytes : ByteArray) : String {
bytes.position = 0;
var str : String = '';
while (bytes.bytesAvailable > 0) {
str += bytes.readUTFBytes(1);
}
return str;
}
the "bytesAvailable" property decreases as you read from the ByteArray. Here, I'm checking if the bytes > 0 instead of the length
the "readUTFBytes" method takes a length parameter (not position). Position is automatically updated as you read from the ByteArray. I'm passing in "1" instead of "i"