C++ convert string to hexadecimal and vice versa

What is the best way to convert a string to hex and vice versa in C++?

Example:

• A string like "Hello World" to hex format: 48656C6C6F20576F726C64
• And from hex 48656C6C6F20576F726C64 to string: "Hello World"

> A string like "Hello World" to hex format: 48656C6C6F20576F726C64.

Ah, here you go:

#include <string>

std::string string_to_hex(const std::string& input)
{
    static const char hex_digits[] = "0123456789ABCDEF";

    std::string output;
    output.reserve(input.length() * 2);
    for (unsigned char c : input)
    {
        output.push_back(hex_digits[c >> 4]);
        output.push_back(hex_digits[c & 15]);
    }
    return output;
}

#include <stdexcept>

int hex_value(unsigned char hex_digit)
{
    static const signed char hex_values[256] = {
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
         0,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
        -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
    };
    int value = hex_values[hex_digit];
    if (value == -1) throw std::invalid_argument("invalid hex digit");
    return value;
}

std::string hex_to_string(const std::string& input)
{
    const auto len = input.length();
    if (len & 1) throw std::invalid_argument("odd length");

    std::string output;
    output.reserve(len / 2);
    for (auto it = input.begin(); it != input.end(); )
    {
        int hi = hex_value(*it++);
        int lo = hex_value(*it++);
        output.push_back(hi << 4 | lo);
    }
    return output;
}

(This assumes that a char has 8 bits, so it's not very portable, but you can take it from here.)

string ToHex(const string& s, bool upper_case /* = true */)
{
	ostringstream ret;

	for (string::size_type i = 0; i < s.length(); ++i)
		ret << std::hex << std::setfill('0') << std::setw(2) << (upper_case ? std::uppercase : std::nouppercase) << (int)s[i];

	return ret.str();
}

int FromHex(const string &s) { return strtoul(s.c_str(), NULL, 16); }

Using lookup tables and the like works, but is just overkill, here are some very simple ways of taking a string to hex and hex back to a string:

#include <stdexcept>
#include <sstream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <string>
#include <cstdint>

std::string string_to_hex(const std::string& in) {
    std::stringstream ss;
    
    ss << std::hex << std::setfill('0');
    for (size_t i = 0; in.length() > i; ++i) {
        ss << std::setw(2) << static_cast<unsigned int>(static_cast<unsigned char>(in[i]));
    }

    return ss.str(); 
}

std::string hex_to_string(const std::string& in) {
    std::string output;

    if ((in.length() % 2) != 0) {
        throw std::runtime_error("String is not valid length ...");
    }

    size_t cnt = in.length() / 2;

    for (size_t i = 0; cnt > i; ++i) {
        uint32_t s = 0;
        std::stringstream ss;
        ss << std::hex << in.substr(i * 2, 2);
        ss >> s;

        output.push_back(static_cast<unsigned char>(s));
    }

    return output;
}

I think there is a much simpler and more elegant solution. Some of the above-mentioned methods may even throw unhandled exceptions in some cases. Here is a fool-proof (as in never goes wrong) and very fast code. Just try it and compare the results in terms of speed and compactness:

#include <string>

// Convert string of chars to its representative string of hex numbers
void stream2hex(const std::string str, std::string& hexstr, bool capital = false)
{
	hexstr.resize(str.size() * 2);
	const size_t a = capital ? 'A' - 1 : 'a' - 1;

	for (size_t i = 0, c = str[0] & 0xFF; i < hexstr.size(); c = str[i / 2] & 0xFF)
	{
		hexstr[i++] = c > 0x9F ? (c / 16 - 9) | a : c / 16 | '0';
		hexstr[i++] = (c & 0xF) > 9 ? (c % 16 - 9) | a : c % 16 | '0';
	}
}

// Convert string of hex numbers to its equivalent char-stream
void hex2stream(const std::string hexstr, std::string& str)
{
	str.resize((hexstr.size() + 1) / 2);

	for (size_t i = 0, j = 0; i < str.size(); i++, j++)
	{
		str[i] = (hexstr[j] & '@' ? hexstr[j] + 9 : hexstr[j]) << 4, j++;
		str[i] |= (hexstr[j] & '@' ? hexstr[j] + 9 : hexstr[j]) & 0xF;
	}
}

Test the code:

#include <iostream>
int main()
{
	std::string s = "Hello World!";
	std::cout << "original string: " << s << '\n';
	stream2hex(s, s);
	std::cout << "hex format: " << s << '\n';
	hex2stream(s, s);
	std::cout << "original one: " << s << '\n';
}

and the result is:

original string: Hello World!
hex format: 48656C6C6F20576F726C6421
original one: Hello World!

You can try this. It's Working...

#include <algorithm>
#include <sstream>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <iomanip>

namespace {
   const std::string test="hello world";
}

int main() {
   std::ostringstream result;
   result << std::setw(2) << std::setfill('0') << std::hex << std::uppercase;
   std::copy(test.begin(), test.end(), std::ostream_iterator<unsigned int>(result, " "));
   std::cout << test << ":" << result.str() << std::endl;
}

As of C++17 there's also std::from_chars. The following function takes a string of hex characters and returns a vector of T:

#include <charconv>

template<typename T>
std::vector<T> hexstr_to_vec(const std::string& str, unsigned char chars_per_num = 2)
{
  std::vector<T> out(str.size() / chars_per_num, 0);

  T value;
  for (std::size_t i = 0; i < str.size() / chars_per_num; i++) {
    std::from_chars<T>(
      str.data() + (i * chars_per_num),
      str.data() + (i * chars_per_num) + chars_per_num,
      value,
      16
    );
    out[i] = value;
  }

  return out;
}

Simplest example using the Standard Library.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
  char c = 'n';
  cout << "HEX " << hex << (int)c << endl;  // output in hexadecimal
  cout << "ASC" << c << endl; // output in ascii
  return 0;
}

To check the output, codepad returns: 6e

and an online ascii-to-hexadecimal conversion tool yields 6e as well. So it works.

You can also do this:

template<class T> std::string toHexString(const T& value, int width) {
    std::ostringstream oss;
    oss << hex;
    if (width > 0) {
        oss << setw(width) << setfill('0');
    }
    oss << value;
    return oss.str();
}

This is a bit faster:

static const char* s_hexTable[256] = 
{
    "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"
};

// Convert binary data sequence [beginIt, endIt) to hexadecimal string
void dataToHexString(const uint8_t*const beginIt, const uint8_t*const endIt, string& str)
{
    str.clear();
    str.reserve((endIt - beginIt) * 2);
    for(const uint8_t* it(beginIt); it != endIt; ++it)
    {
        str += s_hexTable[*it];
    }
}

> This will convert Hello World to 48656c6c6f20576f726c64 and print it.

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    char hello[20]="Hello World";

    for(unsigned int i=0; i<strlen(hello); i++)
        cout << hex << (int) hello[i];
    return 0;
}

Here is an other solution, largely inspired by the one by @fredoverflow.

/**
 * Return hexadecimal representation of the input binary sequence
 */
std::string hexitize(const std::vector<char>& input, const char* const digits = "0123456789ABCDEF")
{
    std::ostringstream output;

    for (unsigned char gap = 0, beg = input[gap]; gap < input.length(); beg = input[++gap])
        output << digits[beg >> 4] << digits[beg & 15];

    return output.str();
}

Length was required parameter in the intended usage.

This will convert "Hello World" to "48656c6c6f20576f726c64" and will store this hex value in str1 and also will convert "48656c6c6f20576f726c64" to "Hello World".

#include <iostream>
#include<sstream>

using namespace std;
int hexCharToInt(char);
string hexToString(string);
int main()
{
    std::string str;
    std::stringstream str1;

    str="Hello World";
    for(int i=0;i<str.length();i++){
        str1 << std::hex << (int)str.at(i);
    }
    std::cout << str1.str() <<"\n";
    string test = "48656c6c6f20576f726c64";
    std::cout << hexToString(test) <<"\n";
    return 0;
}
string hexToString(string str){
    std::stringstream HexString;
    for(int i=0;i<str.length();i++){
        char a = str.at(i++);
        char b = str.at(i);
        int x = hexCharToInt(a);
        int y = hexCharToInt(b);
        HexString << (char)((16*x)+y);
    }
    return HexString.str();
}

int hexCharToInt(char a){
    if(a>='0' && a<='9')
        return(a-48);
    else if(a>='A' && a<='Z')
        return(a-55);
    else
        return(a-87);
}

#include "boost/algorithm/hex.hpp"
std::string hexed = boost::algorithm::hex(std::string("input"));

https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_78_0/boost/algorithm/hex.hpp

Why has nobody used sprintf?

#include <string>
#include <stdio.h>

static const std::string str = "hello world!";

int main()
{
  //copy the data from the string to a char array
  char *strarr = new char[str.size()+1];
  strarr[str.size()+1] = 0; //set the null terminator
  memcpy(strarr, str.c_str(),str.size()); //memory copy to the char array

  printf(strarr);
  printf("\n\nHEX: ");

  //now print the data
  for(int i = 0; i < str.size()+1; i++)
  {
	char x = strarr[i];
	sprintf("%x ", reinterpret_cast<const char*>(x));
  }

  //DO NOT FORGET TO DELETE
  delete(strarr);

  return 0;
}