How are game states/saves shared as a string?

Question

I know enough to get myself in trouble here and butchering terminology but how do games condense their save file into a sharable string or text file?

For a few of my idle games and what not you can either get a download of your current save state via a x-length alphanumeric string or a slightly bigger text file/hash. Also works for custom levels.

In: Technology

Answer 1

Any data can be converted into a string of text.

First you have the data which is just a collection of 1s and 0s, the bits, in complex patterns that then get interpreted by the computer to get your saved state.

These bits can also be interpreted as text. One of the easiest forms is to just translate them into ASCII, where each symbol comes from eight bits or one byte.

It is basically translating a long number into a shorter one, with more complex symbols.