[java] Java code To convert byte to Hexadecimal

I have an array of bytes. I want each byte String of that array to be converted to its corresponding hexadecimal values.

Is there any function in Java to convert a byte array to Hexadecimal ?

This question is related to java

The answer is


Here is a simple function to convert byte to Hexadecimal

   private static String convertToHex(byte[] data) {
    StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer();
    for (int i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
        int halfbyte = (data[i] >>> 4) & 0x0F;
        int two_halfs = 0;
        do {
            if ((0 <= halfbyte) && (halfbyte <= 9))
                buf.append((char) ('0' + halfbyte));
            else
                buf.append((char) ('a' + (halfbyte - 10)));
            halfbyte = data[i] & 0x0F;
        } while(two_halfs++ < 1);
    }
    return buf.toString();
}

I couldn't figure out what exactly you meant by byte String, but here are some conversions from byte to String and vice versa, of course there is a lot more on the official documentations

Integer intValue = 149;

The corresponding byte value is:

Byte byteValue = intValue.byteValue(); // this will convert the rightmost byte of the intValue to byte, because Byte is an 8 bit object and Integer is at least 16 bit, and it will give you a signed number in this case -107

get the integer value back from a Byte variable:

Integer anInt = byteValue.intValue(); // This will convert the byteValue variable to a signed Integer

From Byte and Integer to hex String:
This is the way I do it:

Integer anInt = 149
Byte aByte = anInt.byteValue();

String hexFromInt = "".format("0x%x", anInt); // This will output 0x95
String hexFromByte = "".format("0x%x", aByte); // This will output 0x95

Converting an array of bytes to a hex string:
As far as I know there is no simple function to convert all the elements inside an array of some Object to elements of another Object, So you have to do it yourself. You can use the following functions:

From byte[] to String:

    public static String byteArrayToHexString(byte[] byteArray){
        String hexString = "";

        for(int i = 0; i < byteArray.length; i++){
            String thisByte = "".format("%x", byteArray[i]);
            hexString += thisByte;
        }

        return hexString;
    }

And from hex string to byte[]:

public static byte[] hexStringToByteArray(String hexString){
    byte[] bytes = new byte[hexString.length() / 2];

    for(int i = 0; i < hexString.length(); i += 2){
        String sub = hexString.substring(i, i + 2);
        Integer intVal = Integer.parseInt(sub, 16);
        bytes[i / 2] = intVal.byteValue();
        String hex = "".format("0x%x", bytes[i / 2]);
    }

    return bytes;
}  

It is too late but I hope this could help some others ;)


There's your fast method:

    private static final String[] hexes = new String[]{
        "00","01","02","03","04","05","06","07","08","09","0A","0B","0C","0D","0E","0F",
        "10","11","12","13","14","15","16","17","18","19","1A","1B","1C","1D","1E","1F",
        "20","21","22","23","24","25","26","27","28","29","2A","2B","2C","2D","2E","2F",
        "30","31","32","33","34","35","36","37","38","39","3A","3B","3C","3D","3E","3F",
        "40","41","42","43","44","45","46","47","48","49","4A","4B","4C","4D","4E","4F",
        "50","51","52","53","54","55","56","57","58","59","5A","5B","5C","5D","5E","5F",
        "60","61","62","63","64","65","66","67","68","69","6A","6B","6C","6D","6E","6F",
        "70","71","72","73","74","75","76","77","78","79","7A","7B","7C","7D","7E","7F",
        "80","81","82","83","84","85","86","87","88","89","8A","8B","8C","8D","8E","8F",
        "90","91","92","93","94","95","96","97","98","99","9A","9B","9C","9D","9E","9F",
        "A0","A1","A2","A3","A4","A5","A6","A7","A8","A9","AA","AB","AC","AD","AE","AF",
        "B0","B1","B2","B3","B4","B5","B6","B7","B8","B9","BA","BB","BC","BD","BE","BF",
        "C0","C1","C2","C3","C4","C5","C6","C7","C8","C9","CA","CB","CC","CD","CE","CF",
        "D0","D1","D2","D3","D4","D5","D6","D7","D8","D9","DA","DB","DC","DD","DE","DF",
        "E0","E1","E2","E3","E4","E5","E6","E7","E8","E9","EA","EB","EC","ED","EE","EF",
        "F0","F1","F2","F3","F4","F5","F6","F7","F8","F9","FA","FB","FC","FD","FE","FF"
    };

    public static String byteToHex(byte b) {
        return hexes[b&0xFF];
    }

The fastest way i've yet found to do this is the following:

private static final String    HEXES    = "0123456789ABCDEF";

static String getHex(byte[] raw) {
    final StringBuilder hex = new StringBuilder(2 * raw.length);
    for (final byte b : raw) {
        hex.append(HEXES.charAt((b & 0xF0) >> 4)).append(HEXES.charAt((b & 0x0F)));
    }
    return hex.toString();
}

It's ~ 50x faster than String.format. if you want to test it:

public class MyTest{
    private static final String    HEXES        = "0123456789ABCDEF";

    @Test
    public void test_get_hex() {
        byte[] raw = {
            (byte) 0xd0, (byte) 0x0b, (byte) 0x01, (byte) 0x2a, (byte) 0x63,
            (byte) 0x78, (byte) 0x01, (byte) 0x2e, (byte) 0xe3, (byte) 0x6c,
            (byte) 0xd2, (byte) 0xb0, (byte) 0x78, (byte) 0x51, (byte) 0x73,
            (byte) 0x34, (byte) 0xaf, (byte) 0xbb, (byte) 0xa0, (byte) 0x9f,
            (byte) 0xc3, (byte) 0xa9, (byte) 0x00, (byte) 0x1e, (byte) 0xd5,
            (byte) 0x4b, (byte) 0x89, (byte) 0xa3, (byte) 0x45, (byte) 0x35,
            (byte) 0xd6, (byte) 0x10,
        };

        int N = 77777;
        long t;

        {
            t = System.currentTimeMillis();
            for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
                final StringBuilder hex = new StringBuilder(2 * raw.length);
                for (final byte b : raw) {
                    hex.append(HEXES.charAt((b & 0xF0) >> 4)).append(HEXES.charAt((b & 0x0F)));
                }
                hex.toString();
            }
            System.out.println(System.currentTimeMillis() - t); // 50
        }

        {
            t = System.currentTimeMillis();
            for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
                StringBuilder hex = new StringBuilder(2 * raw.length);
                for (byte b : raw) {
                    hex.append(String.format("%02X", b));
                }
                hex.toString();
            }
            System.out.println(System.currentTimeMillis() - t); // 2535
        }

    }
}

Edit: Just found something just a lil faster and that holds on one line but is not compatible with JRE 9. Use at your own risks

import javax.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter;

DatatypeConverter.printHexBinary(raw);

Use

Integer.toHexString((int)b);

BigInteger n = new BigInteger(byteArray);
String hexa = n.toString(16));

If you like streams, here is a single-expression version of the format-and-concatenate approach:

String hex = IntStream.range(0, bytes.length)
                      .map(i -> bytes[i] & 0xff)
                      .mapToObj(b -> String.format("%02x", b))
                      .collect(Collectors.joining());

It's a shame there isn't a method like Arrays::streamUnsignedBytes for this.


If you want a constant-width hex representation, i.e. 0A instead of A, so that you can recover the bytes unambiguously, try format():

StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
for (byte bb : byteArray) {
    result.append(String.format("%02X", bb));
}
return result.toString();

You can use the method from Bouncy Castle Provider library:

org.bouncycastle.util.encoders.Hex.toHexString(byteArray);

The Bouncy Castle Crypto package is a Java implementation of cryptographic algorithms. This jar contains JCE provider and lightweight API for the Bouncy Castle Cryptography APIs for JDK 1.5 to JDK 1.8.

Maven dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.bouncycastle</groupId>
    <artifactId>bcprov-jdk15on</artifactId>
    <version>1.60</version>
</dependency>

or from Apache Commons Codec:

org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Hex.encodeHexString(byteArray);

The Apache Commons Codec package contains simple encoder and decoders for various formats such as Base64 and Hexadecimal. In addition to these widely used encoders and decoders, the codec package also maintains a collection of phonetic encoding utilities.

Maven dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>commons-codec</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-codec</artifactId>
    <version>1.11</version>
</dependency>

A short and simple way to convert byte[] to hex string by using BigInteger:

import java.math.BigInteger;

byte[] bytes = new byte[] {(byte)255, 10, 20, 30};
String hex = new BigInteger(1, bytes).toString(16);
System.out.println(hex); // ff0a141e

How It Works?

The built-in system class java.math.BigInteger class (java.math.BigInteger) is compatible with binary and hex data:

  • Its has a constructor BigInteger(signum=1, byte[]) to create a big integer by byte[] (set its first parameter signum = 1 to handle correctly the negative bytes)
  • Use BigInteger.toString(16) to convert the big integer to hex string
  • To parse a hex number use new BigInteger("ffa74b", 16) - does not handle correctly the leading zero

If you may want to have the leading zero in the hex result, check its size and add the missing zero if necessary:

if (hex.length() % 2 == 1)
    hex = "0" + hex;

Notes

Use new BigInteger(1, bytes), instead of new BigInteger(bytes), because Java is "broken by design" and the byte data type does not hold bytes but signed tiny integers [-128...127]. If the first byte is negative, the BigInteger assumes you pass a negative big integer. Just pass 1 as first parameter (signum=1).

The conversion back from hex to byte[] is tricky: sometimes a leading zero enters in the produced output and it should be cleaned like this:

byte[] bytes = new BigInteger("ffa74b", 16).toByteArray();
if (bytes[0] == 0) {
    byte[] newBytes = new byte[bytes.length - 1];
    System.arraycopy(bytes, 1, newBytes, 0, newBytes.length);
    bytes = newBytes;
}

The last note is the if the byte[] has several leading zeroes, they will be lost.


    byte[] bytes = {-1, 0, 1, 2, 3 };
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for (byte b : bytes) {
        sb.append(String.format("%02X ", b));
    }
    System.out.println(sb.toString());
    // prints "FF 00 01 02 03 "

See also

  • java.util.Formatter syntax
    • %[flags][width]conversion
      • Flag '0' - The result will be zero-padded
      • Width 2
      • Conversion 'X' - The result is formatted as a hexadecimal integer, uppercase

Looking at the text of the question, it's also possible that this is what is requested:

    String[] arr = {"-1", "0", "10", "20" };
    for (int i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
        arr[i] = String.format("%02x", Byte.parseByte(arr[i]));
    }
    System.out.println(java.util.Arrays.toString(arr));
    // prints "[ff, 00, 0a, 14]"

Several answers here uses Integer.toHexString(int); this is doable, but with some caveats. Since the parameter is an int, a widening primitive conversion is performed to the byte argument, which involves sign extension.

    byte b = -1;
    System.out.println(Integer.toHexString(b));
    // prints "ffffffff"

The 8-bit byte, which is signed in Java, is sign-extended to a 32-bit int. To effectively undo this sign extension, one can mask the byte with 0xFF.

    byte b = -1;
    System.out.println(Integer.toHexString(b & 0xFF));
    // prints "ff"

Another issue with using toHexString is that it doesn't pad with zeroes:

    byte b = 10;
    System.out.println(Integer.toHexString(b & 0xFF));
    // prints "a"

Both factors combined should make the String.format solution more preferrable.

References


If you are happy to use an external library, the org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Hex class has an encodeHex method which takes a byte[] and returns a char[]. This methods is MUCH faster than the format option, and encapsulates the details of the conversion. Also comes with a decodeHex method for the opposite conversion.


If you use Tink, then there is:

package com.google.crypto.tink.subtle;

public final class Hex {
  public static String encode(final byte[] bytes) { ... }
  public static byte[] decode(String hex) { ... }
}

so something like this should work:

import com.google.crypto.tink.subtle.Hex;

byte[] bytes = {-1, 0, 1, 2, 3 };
String enc = Hex.encode(bytes);
byte[] dec = Hex.decode(enc)

Creating (and destroying) a bunch of String instances is not a good way if performance is an issue.

Please ignore those verbose (duplicate) arguments checking statements (ifs). That's for (another) educational purposes.

Full maven project: http://jinahya.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/com.googlecode.jinahya/hex-codec/

Encoding...

/**
 * Encodes a single nibble.
 *
 * @param decoded the nibble to encode.
 *
 * @return the encoded half octet.
 */
protected static int encodeHalf(final int decoded) {

    switch (decoded) {
        case 0x00:
        case 0x01:
        case 0x02:
        case 0x03:
        case 0x04:
        case 0x05:
        case 0x06:
        case 0x07:
        case 0x08:
        case 0x09:
            return decoded + 0x30; // 0x30('0') - 0x39('9')
        case 0x0A:
        case 0x0B:
        case 0x0C:
        case 0x0D:
        case 0x0E:
        case 0x0F:
            return decoded + 0x57; // 0x41('a') - 0x46('f')
        default:
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("illegal half: " + decoded);
    }
}


/**
 * Encodes a single octet into two nibbles.
 *
 * @param decoded the octet to encode.
 * @param encoded the array to which each encoded nibbles are written.
 * @param offset the offset in the array.
 */
protected static void encodeSingle(final int decoded, final byte[] encoded,
                                   final int offset) {

    if (encoded == null) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("null encoded");
    }

    if (encoded.length < 2) {
        // not required
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
            "encoded.length(" + encoded.length + ") < 2");
    }

    if (offset < 0) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("offset(" + offset + ") < 0");
    }

    if (offset >= encoded.length - 1) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
            "offset(" + offset + ") >= encoded.length(" + encoded.length
            + ") - 1");
    }

    encoded[offset] = (byte) encodeHalf((decoded >> 4) & 0x0F);
    encoded[offset + 1] = (byte) encodeHalf(decoded & 0x0F);
}


/**
 * Decodes given sequence of octets into a sequence of nibbles.
 *
 * @param decoded the octets to encode
 *
 * @return the encoded nibbles.
 */
protected static byte[] encodeMultiple(final byte[] decoded) {

    if (decoded == null) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("null decoded");
    }

    final byte[] encoded = new byte[decoded.length << 1];

    int offset = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < decoded.length; i++) {
        encodeSingle(decoded[i], encoded, offset);
        offset += 2;
    }

    return encoded;
}


/**
 * Encodes given sequence of octets into a sequence of nibbles.
 *
 * @param decoded the octets to encode.
 *
 * @return the encoded nibbles.
 */
public byte[] encode(final byte[] decoded) {

    return encodeMultiple(decoded);
}

Decoding...

/**
 * Decodes a single nibble.
 *
 * @param encoded the nibble to decode.
 *
 * @return the decoded half octet.
 */
protected static int decodeHalf(final int encoded) {

    switch (encoded) {
        case 0x30: // '0'
        case 0x31: // '1'
        case 0x32: // '2'
        case 0x33: // '3'
        case 0x34: // '4'
        case 0x35: // '5'
        case 0x36: // '6'
        case 0x37: // '7'
        case 0x38: // '8'
        case 0x39: // '9'
            return encoded - 0x30;
        case 0x41: // 'A'
        case 0x42: // 'B'
        case 0x43: // 'C'
        case 0x44: // 'D'
        case 0x45: // 'E'
        case 0x46: // 'F'
            return encoded - 0x37;
        case 0x61: // 'a'
        case 0x62: // 'b'
        case 0x63: // 'c'
        case 0x64: // 'd'
        case 0x65: // 'e'
        case 0x66: // 'f'
            return encoded - 0x57;
        default:
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("illegal half: " + encoded);
    }
}


/**
 * Decodes two nibbles into a single octet.
 *
 * @param encoded the nibble array.
 * @param offset the offset in the array.
 *
 * @return decoded octet.
 */
protected static int decodeSingle(final byte[] encoded, final int offset) {

    if (encoded == null) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("null encoded");
    }

    if (encoded.length < 2) {
        // not required
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
            "encoded.length(" + encoded.length + ") < 2");
    }

    if (offset < 0) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("offset(" + offset + ") < 0");
    }

    if (offset >= encoded.length - 1) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
            "offset(" + offset + ") >= encoded.length(" + encoded.length
            + ") - 1");
    }

    return (decodeHalf(encoded[offset]) << 4)
           | decodeHalf(encoded[offset + 1]);
}


/**
 * Encodes given sequence of nibbles into a sequence of octets.
 *
 * @param encoded the nibbles to decode.
 *
 * @return the encoded octets.
 */
protected static byte[] decodeMultiple(final byte[] encoded) {

    if (encoded == null) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("null encoded");
    }

    if ((encoded.length & 0x01) == 0x01) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
            "encoded.length(" + encoded.length + ") is not even");
    }

    final byte[] decoded = new byte[encoded.length >> 1];

    int offset = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < decoded.length; i++) {
        decoded[i] = (byte) decodeSingle(encoded, offset);
        offset += 2;
    }

    return decoded;
}


/**
 * Decodes given sequence of nibbles into a sequence of octets.
 *
 * @param encoded the nibbles to decode.
 *
 * @return the decoded octets.
 */
public byte[] decode(final byte[] encoded) {

    return decodeMultiple(encoded);
}

Try this way:

byte bv = 10;
String hexString = Integer.toHexString(bv);

Dealing with array (if I understood you correctly):

byte[] bytes = {9, 10, 11, 15, 16};
StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
for (byte b : bytes) {
    result.append(String.format("%02X ", b));
    result.append(" "); // delimiter
}
return result.toString();

As polygenelubricants mentioned, String.format() is the right answer compare to Integer.toHexString() (since it deals with negative numbers in a right way).


Others have covered the general case. But if you have a byte array of a known form, for example a MAC address, then you can:

byte[] mac = { (byte)0x00, (byte)0x00, (byte)0x00, (byte)0x00, (byte)0x00 };

String str = String.format("%02X:%02X:%02X:%02X:%02X:%02X",
                           mac[0], mac[1], mac[2], mac[3], mac[4], mac[5]); 

The Best solution is this badass one-liner:

String hex=DatatypeConverter.printHexBinary(byte[] b);

as mentioned here


This is the code that I've found to run the fastest so far. I ran it on 109015 byte arrays of length 32, in 23ms. I was running it on a VM so it'll probably run faster on bare metal.

public static final char[] HEX_DIGITS =         {'0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F'};

public static char[] encodeHex( final byte[] data ){
    final int l = data.length;
    final char[] out = new char[l<<1];
    for( int i=0,j=0; i<l; i++ ){
        out[j++] = HEX_DIGITS[(0xF0 & data[i]) >>> 4];
        out[j++] = HEX_DIGITS[0x0F & data[i]];
    }
    return out;
}

Then you can just do

String s = new String( encodeHex(myByteArray) );

This is a very fast way. No external libaries needed.

final protected static char[] HEXARRAY = "0123456789abcdef".toCharArray();

    public static String encodeHexString( byte[] bytes ) {

        char[] hexChars = new char[bytes.length * 2];
        for (int j = 0; j < bytes.length; j++) {
            int v = bytes[j] & 0xFF;
            hexChars[j * 2] = HEXARRAY[v >>> 4];
            hexChars[j * 2 + 1] = HEXARRAY[v & 0x0F];
        }
        return new String(hexChars);
    }

Just like some other answers, I recommend to use String.format() and BigInteger. But to interpret the byte array as big-endian binary representation instead of two's-complement binary representation (with signum and incomplete use of possible hex values range) use BigInteger(int signum, byte[] magnitude), not BigInteger(byte[] val).

For example, for a byte array of length 8 use:

String.format("%016X", new BigInteger(1,bytes))

Advantages:

  • leading zeros
  • no signum
  • only built-in functions
  • only one line of code

Disadvantage:

  • there might be more efficient ways to do that

Example:

byte[] bytes = new byte[8];
Random r = new Random();
System.out.println("big-endian       | two's-complement");
System.out.println("-----------------|-----------------");
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    r.nextBytes(bytes);
    System.out.print(String.format("%016X", new BigInteger(1,bytes)));
    System.out.print(" | ");
    System.out.print(String.format("%016X", new BigInteger(bytes)));
    System.out.println();
}

Example output:

big-endian       | two's-complement
-----------------|-----------------
3971B56BC7C80590 | 3971B56BC7C80590
64D3C133C86CCBDC | 64D3C133C86CCBDC
B232EFD5BC40FA61 | -4DCD102A43BF059F
CD350CC7DF7C9731 | -32CAF338208368CF
82CDC9ECC1BC8EED | -7D3236133E437113
F438C8C34911A7F5 | -BC7373CB6EE580B
5E99738BE6ACE798 | 5E99738BE6ACE798
A565FE5CE43AA8DD | -5A9A01A31BC55723
032EBA783D2E9A9F | 032EBA783D2E9A9F
8FDAA07263217ABA | -70255F8D9CDE8546

I am posting because none of the existing answers explain why their approaches work, which I think is really important for this problem. In some cases, this causes the proposed solution to appear unnecessarily complicated and subtle. To illustrate I will provide a fairly straightforward approach, but I'll provide a bit more detail to help illustrate why it works.

First off, what are we trying to do? We want to convert a byte value (or an array of bytes) to a string which represents a hexadecimal value in ASCII. So step one is to find out exactly what a byte in Java is:

The byte data type is an 8-bit signed two's complement integer. It has a minimum value of -128 and a maximum value of 127 (inclusive). The byte data type can be useful for saving memory in large arrays, where the memory savings actually matters. They can also be used in place of int where their limits help to clarify your code; the fact that a variable's range is limited can serve as a form of documentation.

What does this mean? A few things: First and most importantly, it means we are working with 8-bits. So for example we can write the number 2 as 0000 0010. However, since it is two's complement, we write a negative 2 like this: 1111 1110. What is also means is that converting to hex is very straightforward. That is, you simply convert each 4 bit segment directly to hex. Note that to make sense of negative numbers in this scheme you will first need to understand two's complement. If you don't already understand two's complement, you can read an excellent explanation, here: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~tomf/notes/cps104/twoscomp.html


Converting Two's Complement to Hex In General

Once a number is in two's complement it is dead simple to convert it to hex. In general, converting from binary to hex is very straightforward, and as you will see in the next two examples, you can go directly from two's complement to hex.

Examples

Example 1: Convert 2 to Hex.

1) First convert 2 to binary in two's complement:

2 (base 10) = 0000 0010 (base 2)

2) Now convert binary to hex:

0000 = 0x0 in hex
0010 = 0x2 in hex

therefore 2 = 0000 0010 = 0x02. 

Example 2: Convert -2 (in two's complement) to Hex.

1) First convert -2 to binary in two's complement:

-2 (base 10) = 0000 0010 (direct conversion to binary) 
               1111 1101 (invert bits)
               1111 1110 (add 1)
therefore: -2 = 1111 1110 (in two's complement)

2) Now Convert to Hex:

1111 = 0xF in hex
1110 = 0xE in hex

therefore: -2 = 1111 1110 = 0xFE.


Doing this In Java

Now that we've covered the concept, you'll find we can achieve what we want with some simple masking and shifting. The key thing to understand is that the byte you are trying to convert is already in two's complement. You don't do this conversion yourself. I think this is a major point of confusion on this issue. Take for example the follow byte array:

byte[] bytes = new byte[]{-2,2};

We just manually converted them to hex, above, but how can we do it in Java? Here's how:

Step 1: Create a StringBuffer to hold our computation.

StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();

Step 2: Isolate the higher order bits, convert them to hex, and append them to the buffer

Given the binary number 1111 1110, we can isolate the higher order bits by first shifting them over by 4, and then zeroing out the rest of the number. Logically this is simple, however, the implementation details in Java (and many languages) introduce a wrinkle because of sign extension. Essentially, when you shift a byte value, Java first converts your value to an integer, and then performs sign extension. So while you would expect 1111 1110 >> 4 to be 0000 1111, in reality, in Java it is represented as the two's complement 0xFFFFFFFF!

So returning to our example:

1111 1110 >> 4 (shift right 4) = 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 (32 bit sign-extended number in two's complement)

We can then isolate the bits with a mask:

1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 & 0xF = 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1111
therefore: 1111 = 0xF in hex. 

In Java we can do this all in one shot:

Character.forDigit((bytes[0] >> 4) & 0xF, 16);

The forDigit function just maps the number you pass it onto the set of hexadecimal numbers 0-F.

Step 3: Next we need to isolate the lower order bits. Since the bits we want are already in the correct position, we can just mask them out:

1111 1110 & 0xF = 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1110 (recall sign extension from before)
therefore: 1110 = 0xE in hex.  

Like before, in Java we can do this all in one shot:

Character.forDigit((bytes[0] & 0xF), 16);

Putting this all together we can do it as a for loop and convert the entire array:

for(int i=0; i < bytes.length; i++){
    buffer.append(Character.forDigit((bytes[i] >> 4) & 0xF, 16));
    buffer.append(Character.forDigit((bytes[i] & 0xF), 16));
}

Hopefully this explanation makes things clearer for those of you wondering exactly what is going on in the many examples you will find on the internet. Hopefully I didn't make any egregious errors, but suggestions and corrections are highly welcome!


Java 17: Introducing java.util.HexFormat

Java 17 comes with a utility to convert byte arrays and numbers to their hexadecimal counterparts. Let's say we have an MD5 digest of "Hello World" as a byte-array:

var md5 = MessageDigest.getInstance("md5");
md5.update("Hello world".getBytes(UTF_8));

var digest = md5.digest();

Now we can use the HexFormat.of().formatHex(byte[]) method to convert the given byte[] to its hexadecimal form:

jshell> HexFormat.of().formatHex(digest)
$7 ==> "3e25960a79dbc69b674cd4ec67a72c62"

The withUpperCase() method returns the uppercase version of the previous output:

jshell> HexFormat.of().withUpperCase().formatHex(digest)
$8 ==> "3E25960A79DBC69B674CD4EC67A72C62"