There are four versions of getBytes() methods. There is an alternative to getChars() that stores the characters in an array of bytes.

byte[] getBytes() - Encodes this String into a sequence of bytes using the platform's default charset, storing the result into a new byte array.

byte[] getBytes(Charset charset) - Encodes this String into a sequence of bytes using the given charset, storing the result into a new byte array.

void getBytes(int srcBegin, int srcEnd, byte[] dst, int dstBegin) - Deprecated.

byte[] getBytes(String charsetName) - Encodes this String into a sequence of bytes using the named charset, storing the result into a new byte array.

Java String getBytes() Method Example

Let's write an example to demonstrate all the getBytes() methods.

public class GetBytesExamples {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
        String str = "javaguides";
         // Encodes this String into a sequence of bytes using the platform's
         // default charset, storing the result into a new byte array.
        byte[] bs = str.getBytes();
        for (byte b :  bs) {
            System.out.println(b);
        }
         // Encodes this String into a sequence of bytes using the given charset,
         // storing the result into a new byte array.
        byte[] bs1 = str.getBytes(Charset.forName("UTF-8"));
        for (byte b : bs1) {
            System.out.println(b);
        }
         // Encodes this String into a sequence of bytes using the given charset,
         // storing the result into a new byte array.
        byte[] bs2 = str.getBytes("UTF-8");
        for (byte b : bs2) {
            System.out.println(b);
        }
        byte[] dest = new byte[str.length()];
        str.getBytes(0, str.length(), dest, 0);
        for (byte b : dest) {
            System.out.println(b);
        }
    }
}

Output: