byte to hex string

Question

How do I convert a byte   to a string  Every time I attempt it  I get      System Byte      instead of the value   Also  how do I get the value in Hex instead of a decimal

User · Answer

Well I don t convert bytes to hex often so I have to say I don t know if there is a better way then this  but here is a way to do it   StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder    foreach  byte b in myByteArray      sb Append b ToString  X2      string hexString   sb ToString

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Hex  Linq-fu   string Concat ba Select b   gt  b ToString  X2    ToArray      UPDATE with the times  As noted by  RubenBartelink  the code that don t have a conversion of IEnumerable lt string gt  to an array  ba Select b   gt  b ToString  X2    does not work prior to 4 0  the same code is now working on 4 0   This code     byte   ba     1  2  4  8  16  32     string s   string Concat ba Select b   gt  b ToString  X2      string t   string Concat ba Select b   gt  b ToString  X2    ToArray      Console WriteLine  s   Console WriteLine  t        prior to  NET 4 0  the output is   System Linq Enumerable  lt CreateSelectIterator gt c  Iterator10 2 System Byte System String  010204081020   On  NET 4 0 onwards  string Concat has an overload that accepts IEnumerable  Hence on 4 0  the above code will have same output for both variables s and t  010204081020 010204081020   Prior to 4 0  ba Select b   gt  b ToString  X2    goes to overload  object arg0   the way for the IEnumerable lt string gt  to go to a proper overload  i e   params string   values   is we need to convert the IEnumerable lt string gt  to string array  Prior to 4 0  string Concat has 10 overload functions  on 4 0 it is now 12

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No one here mentioned the reason why you get the  System Byte    string instead of the value  so I will   When an object is implicitly cast to a String  the program will default to the object s public String ToString   method which is inherited from System Object   public virtual string ToString         return this GetType   ToString        If you find that you are often making this conversion  you could simply create a wrapper class and override this method like so   public override string ToString            do the processing here        return the nicely formatted string     Now each time you print this wrapper object you will get your value instead of the value from this GetType   ToString

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Here is another method   public static string ByteArrayToHexString byte   Bytes        StringBuilder Result   new StringBuilder Bytes Length   2       string HexAlphabet    0123456789ABCDEF        foreach  byte B in Bytes                Result Append HexAlphabet  int  B  gt  gt  4             Result Append HexAlphabet  int  B  amp  0xF                return Result ToString       public static byte   HexStringToByteArray string Hex        byte   Bytes   new byte Hex Length   2       int   HexValue   new int     0x00  0x01  0x02  0x03  0x04  0x05          0x06  0x07  0x08  0x09  0x00  0x00  0x00  0x00  0x00  0x00  0x00          0x0A  0x0B  0x0C  0x0D  0x0E  0x0F         for  int x   0  i   0  i  lt  Hex Length  i    2  x    1                Bytes x     byte  HexValue Char ToUpper Hex i   0   -  0    lt  lt  4                             HexValue Char ToUpper Hex i   1   -  0                return Bytes      Alternatively  you could pre-build the translation table like so to achieve even faster results   http   blogs msdn com b blambert archive 2009 02 22 blambert-codesnip-fast-byte-array-to-hex-string-conversion aspx

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As others have said it depends on the encoding of the values in the byte array   Despite this you need to be very careful with this sort of thing or you may try to convert bytes that are not handled by the chosen encoding   Jon Skeet has a good article about encoding and unicode in  NET   Recommended reading

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I like using extension methods for conversions like this  even if they just wrap standard library methods  In the case of hexadecimal conversions  I use the following hand-tuned  i e   fast  algorithms   public static string ToHex this byte   bytes        char   c   new char bytes Length   2        byte b       for int bx   0  cx   0  bx  lt  bytes Length    bx    cx                 b     byte  bytes bx   gt  gt  4            c cx     char  b  gt  9   b   0x37   0x20   b   0x30            b     byte  bytes bx   amp  0x0F            c   cx   char  b  gt  9   b   0x37   0x20   b   0x30              return new string c      public static byte   HexToBytes this string str        if  str Length    0    str Length   2    0          return new byte 0        byte   buffer   new byte str Length   2       char c      for  int bx   0  sx   0  bx  lt  buffer Length    bx    sx                   Convert first half of byte         c   str sx           buffer bx     byte   c  gt   9     c  gt   Z     c -  a    10     c -  A    10      c -  0     lt  lt  4               Convert second half of byte         c   str   sx           buffer bx      byte  c  gt   9     c  gt   Z     c -  a    10     c -  A    10      c -  0                return buffer

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Here is a extension method for byte array  byte     e g    var b   new byte     15  22  255  84  45  65  7  28  59  10    Console WriteLine b ToHexString       public static class HexByteArrayExtensionMethods       private const int AllocateThreshold   256      private const string UpperHexChars    0123456789ABCDEF       private const string LowerhexChars    0123456789abcdef       private static string   upperHexBytes      private static string   lowerHexBytes       public static string ToHexString this byte   value                return ToHexString value  false              public static string ToHexString this byte   value  bool upperCase                if  value    null                        throw new ArgumentNullException  value                       if  value Length    0                        return string Empty                     if  upperCase                        if  upperHexBytes    null                                return ToHexStringFast value  upperHexBytes                              if  value Length  gt  AllocateThreshold                                return ToHexStringFast value  UpperHexBytes                              return ToHexStringSlow value  UpperHexChars                      if  lowerHexBytes    null                        return ToHexStringFast value  lowerHexBytes                      if  value Length  gt  AllocateThreshold                        return ToHexStringFast value  LowerHexBytes                      return ToHexStringSlow value  LowerhexChars              private static string ToHexStringSlow byte   value  string hexChars                var hex   new char value Length   2           int j   0           for  var i   0  i  lt  value Length  i                          var b   value i               hex j      hexChars b  gt  gt  4               hex j      hexChars b  amp  15                      return new string hex              private static string ToHexStringFast byte   value  string   hexBytes                var hex   new char value Length   2           int j   0           for  var i   0  i  lt  value Length  i                          var s   hexBytes value i                hex j      s 0               hex j      s 1                      return new string hex              private static string   UpperHexBytes               get                       return  upperHexBytes     upperHexBytes   new                      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                            private static string   LowerHexBytes               get                       return  lowerHexBytes     lowerHexBytes   new                      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

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I thought I would attempt to compare the speed of each of the methods listed here for the hell of it   I based the speed testing code off this   The result is that BitConverter String Replace seems to be faster than most other simple ways   But the speed can be improved with algorithms like Nathan Moinvaziri s ByteArrayToHexString or Kurt s ToHex   I also found it interesting that string Concat and string Join are much slower than StringBuilder implementations for long strings  but similar for shorter arrays   Probably due to expanding the StringBuilder on the longer strings  so setting the initial size should negate this difference    Took each bit of code from an answer here  BitConvertRep   Answer by Guffa  BitConverter and String Replace  I d recommend for most cases  StringBuilder   Answer by Quintin Robinson  foreach char StringBuilder Append LinqConcat   Answer by Michael Buen  string Concat of Linq built array LinqJoin   Answer by mloskot  string Join of Linq built array LinqAgg   Answer by Matthew Whited  IEnumerable Aggregate with StringBuilder ToHex   Answer by Kurt  sets chars in an array  using byte values to get hex ByteArrayToHexString   Answer by Nathan Moinvaziri  approx same speed as the ToHex above  and is probably easier to read  I d recommend for speed  ToHexFromTable   Linked in answer by Nathan Moinvaziri  for me this is near the same speed as the above 2 but requires an array of 256 strings to always exist      With  LONG STRING LENGTH   1000   1024          BitConvertRep calculation Time Elapsed 27 202 ms  fastest built in simple    StringBuilder calculation Time Elapsed 75 723 ms  StringBuilder no reallocate    LinqConcat calculation Time Elapsed 182 094 ms   LinqJoin calculation Time Elapsed 181 142 ms   LinqAgg calculation Time Elapsed 93 087 ms  StringBuilder with reallocating    ToHex calculation Time Elapsed 19 167 ms  fastest          With  LONG STRING LENGTH   100   1024   Similar results         BitConvertReplace calculation Time Elapsed 3431 ms   StringBuilder calculation Time Elapsed 8289 ms   LinqConcat calculation Time Elapsed 21512 ms   LinqJoin calculation Time Elapsed 19433 ms   LinqAgg calculation Time Elapsed 9230 ms   ToHex calculation Time Elapsed 1976 ms         With  int MANY STRING COUNT   1000  int MANY STRING LENGTH   1024     Same byte count as first test but in different arrays          BitConvertReplace calculation Time Elapsed 25 680 ms   StringBuilder calculation Time Elapsed 78 411 ms   LinqConcat calculation Time Elapsed 101 233 ms   LinqJoin calculation Time Elapsed 99 311 ms   LinqAgg calculation Time Elapsed 84 660 ms   ToHex calculation Time Elapsed 18 221 ms         With  int MANY STRING COUNT   2000  int MANY STRING LENGTH   20          BitConvertReplace calculation Time Elapsed 1347 ms   StringBuilder calculation Time Elapsed 3234 ms   LinqConcat calculation Time Elapsed 5013 ms   LinqJoin calculation Time Elapsed 4826 ms   LinqAgg calculation Time Elapsed 3589 ms   ToHex calculation Time Elapsed 772 ms      Testing code I used   void Main         int LONG STRING LENGTH   100   1024      int MANY STRING COUNT   1024      int MANY STRING LENGTH   100       var source   GetRandomBytes LONG STRING LENGTH        List lt byte   gt  manyString   new List lt byte   gt  MANY STRING COUNT       for  int i   0  i  lt  MANY STRING COUNT    i                manyString Add GetRandomBytes MANY STRING LENGTH               var algorithms   new Dictionary lt string Func lt byte    string gt  gt         algorithms  BitConvertReplace     BitConv      algorithms  StringBuilder     StringBuilderTest      algorithms  LinqConcat     LinqConcat      algorithms  LinqJoin     LinqJoin      algorithms  LinqAgg     LinqAgg      algorithms  ToHex     ToHex      algorithms  ByteArrayToHexString     ByteArrayToHexString       Console WriteLine       Long string test        foreach  var pair in algorithms            TimeAction pair Key     calculation   500       gt                        pair Value source                          Console WriteLine       Many string test        foreach  var pair in algorithms            TimeAction pair Key     calculation   500       gt                        foreach  var str in manyString                                pair Value str                                         Define other methods and classes here static void TimeAction string description  int iterations  Action func        var watch   new Stopwatch        watch Start        for  int i   0  i  lt  iterations  i              func              watch Stop        Console Write description       Console WriteLine   Time Elapsed  0  ms   watch ElapsedMilliseconds        static byte   GetRandomBytes int count        var bytes   new byte count        new Random    NextBytes bytes       return bytes      static Random rand   new Random    static byte   GetRandomBytes int count        var bytes   new byte count       rand NextBytes bytes       return bytes      static string BitConv byte   data        return BitConverter ToString data  Replace  -   string Empty     static string StringBuilderTest byte   data        StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder data Length 2       foreach  byte b in data          sb Append b ToString  X2          return sb ToString      static string LinqConcat byte   data        return string Concat data Select b   gt  b ToString  X2    ToArray       static string LinqJoin byte   data        return string Join             data Select              bin   gt  bin ToString  X2                 ToArray       static string LinqAgg byte   data        return data Aggregate new StringBuilder                                    sb v   gt sb Append v ToString  X2                                    ToString      static string ToHex byte   bytes        char   c   new char bytes Length   2        byte b       for int bx   0  cx   0  bx  lt  bytes Length    bx    cx                b     byte  bytes bx   gt  gt  4            c cx     char  b  gt  9   b - 10    A    b    0             b     byte  bytes bx   amp  0x0F            c   cx     char  b  gt  9   b - 10    A    b    0               return new string c     public static string ByteArrayToHexString byte   Bytes        StringBuilder Result   new StringBuilder Bytes Length 2       string HexAlphabet    0123456789ABCDEF        foreach  byte B in Bytes                    Result Append HexAlphabet  int  B  gt  gt  4             Result Append HexAlphabet  int  B  amp  0xF                    return Result ToString        Also another answer with a similar process  I haven t compared our results yet

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There is a built in method for this   byte   data     1  2  4  8  16  32     string hex   BitConverter ToString data     Result  01-02-04-08-10-20  If you want it without the dashes  just remove them   string hex   BitConverter ToString data  Replace  -   string Empty     Result  010204081020  If you want a more compact representation  you can use Base64   string base64   Convert ToBase64String data     Result  AQIECBAg

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You combine LINQ with string methods   string hex   string Join       bin Select      bin   gt  bin ToString  X2           ToArray

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private static string GuidToRaw Guid guid        byte   bytes   guid ToByteArray         int  harCount   bytes Length   2      char   chars   new char  harCount        int index   0      for  int i   0  i  lt   harCount  i    2                byte b   bytes index             chars i    GetHexValue  int  b   16            chars i   1    GetHexValue  int  b   16              return new string chars  0  chars Length      private static char GetHexValue int i        return  char  i  lt  10   i   48   i   55

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Nice way to do this with LINQ     var data   new byte     1  2  4  8  16  32     var hexString   data Aggregate new StringBuilder                                     sb v   gt sb Append v ToString  X2                                    ToString

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Just to add one more answer to the pile  there is a System Runtime Remoting Metadata W3cXsd2001 SoapHexBinary class that I ve used which can convert bytes to and from hex   string hex   new SoapHexBinary bytes  ToString    byte   bytes   SoapHexBinary Parse hex  Value    Not sure how it compares  benchmark  to other implementations  but IMO it is pretty simple -- especially for converting from hex back into bytes

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Very fast extension methods  with reversal   public static class ExtensionMethods       public static string ToHex this byte   data            return ToHex data   quot  quot              public static string ToHex this byte   data  string prefix            char   lookup   new char      0    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    A    B    C    D    E    F             int i   0  p   prefix Length  l   data Length          char   c   new char l   2   p           byte d          for   i  lt  p    i  c i    prefix i           i   -1          --l          --p          while i  lt  l                d   data   i               c   p    lookup d  gt  gt  4               c   p    lookup d  amp  0xF                     return new string c  0  c Length             public static byte   FromHex this string str            return FromHex str  0  0  0             public static byte   FromHex this string str  int offset  int step            return FromHex str  offset  step  0             public static byte   FromHex this string str  int offset  int step  int tail            byte   b   new byte  str Length - offset - tail   step     2   step            byte c1  c2          int l   str Length - tail          int s   step   1          for int y   0  x   offset  x  lt  l    y  x    s                c1    byte str x               if c1  gt  0x60  c1 -  0x57              else if c1  gt  0x40  c1 -  0x37              else c1 -  0x30              c2    byte str   x               if c2  gt  0x60  c2 -  0x57              else if c2  gt  0x40  c2 -  0x37              else c2 -  0x30              b y     byte   c1  lt  lt  4    c2                     return b           Beats all the others in the speed test above       Long string test BitConvertReplace calculation Time Elapsed 2415 ms StringBuilder calculation Time Elapsed 5668 ms LinqConcat calculation Time Elapsed 11826 ms LinqJoin calculation Time Elapsed 9323 ms LinqAgg calculation Time Elapsed 7444 ms ToHexTable calculation Time Elapsed 1028 ms ToHexAcidzombie calculation Time Elapsed 1035 ms ToHexPatrick calculation Time Elapsed 814 ms ToHexKurt calculation Time Elapsed 1604 ms ByteArrayToHexString calculation Time Elapsed 1330 ms     Many string test BitConvertReplace calculation Time Elapsed 2238 ms StringBuilder calculation Time Elapsed 5393 ms LinqConcat calculation Time Elapsed 9043 ms LinqJoin calculation Time Elapsed 9131 ms LinqAgg calculation Time Elapsed 7324 ms ToHexTable calculation Time Elapsed 968 ms ToHexAcidzombie calculation Time Elapsed 969 ms ToHexPatrick calculation Time Elapsed 956 ms ToHexKurt calculation Time Elapsed 1547 ms ByteArrayToHexString calculation Time Elapsed 1277 ms

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With   byte   data   new byte     0x01  0x02  0x03  0x0D  0x0E  0x0F    string hex   string Empty  data ToList   ForEach b   gt  hex    b ToString  x2        use  X2  for uppercase hex letters Console WriteLine hex     Result  0102030d0e0f

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I thought I should provide an answer  From my test this method is the fastest  public static class Helper       public static string   HexTbl   Enumerable Range 0  256  Select v   gt  v ToString  X2    ToArray        public static string ToHex this IEnumerable lt byte gt  array                StringBuilder s   new StringBuilder            foreach  var v in array              s Append HexTbl v            return s ToString              public static string ToHex this byte   array                StringBuilder s   new StringBuilder array Length 2           foreach  var v in array              s Append HexTbl v            return s ToString

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I think I made a faster byte array to string convertor   public static class HexTable       private static readonly string   table   BitConverter ToString Enumerable Range 0  256  Select x   gt   byte x  ToArray    Split  -         public static string ToHexTable byte   value                StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder 2   value Length            for  int i   0  i  lt  value Length  i                sb Append table value i              return sb ToString            And the test set up   static void Main string   args            const int TEST COUNT   10000          const int BUFFER LENGTH   100000           Random random   new Random             Stopwatch sw   new Stopwatch            Stopwatch sw2   new Stopwatch             byte   buffer   new byte BUFFER LENGTH           random NextBytes buffer            sw Start            for  int j   0  j  lt  TEST COUNT  j                HexTable ToHexTable buffer            sw Stop             sw2 Start            for  int j   0  j  lt  TEST COUNT  j                ToHexChar ToHex buffer            sw2 Stop             Console WriteLine  Hex Table Elapsed Milliseconds   0    sw ElapsedMilliseconds           Console WriteLine  ToHex Elapsed Milliseconds   0    sw2 ElapsedMilliseconds           The ToHexChar ToHEx   method is the ToHex   method shown previously   Results are as follows   HexTable   11808 ms ToHEx   12168ms  It may not look that much of a difference  but it s still faster

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You have to know the encoding of the string represented in bytes  but you can say System Text UTF8Encoding GetString bytes  or System Text ASCIIEncoding GetString bytes    I m doing this from memory  so the API may not be exactly correct  but it s very close    For the answer to your second question  see this question

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I m not sure if you need perfomance for doing this  but here is the fastest method to convert byte   to hex string that I can think of    static readonly char   hexchar   new char      0    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    A    B    C    D    E    F     public static string HexStr byte   data  int offset  int len  bool space   false        int i   0  k   2      if  space  k        var c   new char len   k       while  i  lt  len                byte d   data offset   i           c i   k    hexchar d   0x10           c i   k   1    hexchar d   0x10           if  space  amp  amp  i  lt  len - 1  c i   k   2                 i              return new string c  0  c Length

[c#] byte[] to hex string

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