Use an encoder and a decoder to encode a string into an array of bytes, and then decode the bytes into an array of characters. : UTF8Encoding « Development « VB.Net Tutorial

1. VB.Net Tutorial
2. Development
3. UTF8Encoding

Imports System
Imports System.Text
Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic

Public Class MainClass

   Public Shared Sub Main()
      Dim u16 As New UnicodeEncoding(False, True, True)
      Dim myEnc As Encoder = u16.GetEncoder()
      Dim myDec As Decoder = u16.GetDecoder()

      Dim myChars() As Char = {"z"c, "a"c, ChrW(&H0306)}
      
      Dim iBC As Integer = myEnc.GetByteCount(myChars, 0, myChars.Length, True)
      Dim myBytes(iBC - 1) As Byte
      myEnc.GetBytes(myChars, 0, myChars.Length, myBytes, 0, True)

      Dim i As Integer
      For i = 0 To myBytes.Length - 1
         Console.Write("{0:X2} ", myBytes(i))
      Next i

      Dim iCC As Integer = myDec.GetCharCount(myBytes, 0, myBytes.Length, True)
      Dim myDecodedChars(iCC - 1) As Char
      myDec.GetChars(myBytes, 0, myBytes.Length, myDecodedChars, 0, True)

      Console.WriteLine(myDecodedChars)

   End Sub
End Class