How to convert an NSData into an NSString Hex string?

When I call -description on an NSData object, I see a pretty Hex string of the NSData object's bytes like:

<f6e7cd28 0fc5b5d4 88f8394b af216506 bc1bba86 4d5b483d>

I'd like to get this representation of the data (minus the lt/gt quotes) into an in-memory NSString so I can work with it.. I'd prefer not to call -[NSData description] and then just trim the lt/gt quotes (because I assume that is not a guaranteed aspect of NSData's public interface and is subject change in the future).

What's the simplest way to get this representation of an NSData object into an NSString object (other than calling -description)?

Keep in mind that any String(format: ...) solution will be terribly slow (for large data)

NSData *data = ...;
NSUInteger capacity = data.length * 2;
NSMutableString *sbuf = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:capacity];
const unsigned char *buf = data.bytes;
NSInteger i;
for (i=0; i<data.length; ++i) {
  [sbuf appendFormat:@"%02X", (NSUInteger)buf[i]];
}

If you need something more performant try this:

static inline char itoh(int i) {
	if (i > 9) return 'A' + (i - 10);
	return '0' + i;
}

NSString * NSDataToHex(NSData *data) {
	NSUInteger i, len;
	unsigned char *buf, *bytes;
	
	len = data.length;
	bytes = (unsigned char*)data.bytes;
	buf = malloc(len*2);
	
	for (i=0; i<len; i++) {
	    buf[i*2] = itoh((bytes[i] >> 4) & 0xF);
	    buf[i*2+1] = itoh(bytes[i] & 0xF);
	}
	
    return [[NSString alloc] initWithBytesNoCopy:buf
                                          length:len*2
                                        encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding
                                    freeWhenDone:YES];
}

Swift version

private extension Data {
    var hexadecimalString: String {
        let charA: UInt8 = 0x61
        let char0: UInt8 = 0x30
        func byteToChar(_ b: UInt8) -> Character {
            Character(UnicodeScalar(b > 9 ? charA + b - 10 : char0 + b))
        }
        let hexChars = flatMap {[
            byteToChar(($0 >> 4) & 0xF),
            byteToChar($0 & 0xF)
        ]}
        return String(hexChars)
    }
}

I agree on the solution not to call description which is to be reserved for debugging, so good point and good question :)

The easiest solution is to loop thru the bytes of the NSData and construct the NSString from it. Use [yourData bytes] to access the bytes, and build the string into an NSMutableString.

Here is an example by implementing this using a category of NSData

@interface NSData(Hex)
-(NSString*)hexRepresentationWithSpaces_AS:(BOOL)spaces;
@end

@implementation NSData(Hex)
-(NSString*)hexRepresentationWithSpaces_AS:(BOOL)spaces
{
    const unsigned char* bytes = (const unsigned char*)[self bytes];
    NSUInteger nbBytes = [self length];
    //If spaces is true, insert a space every this many input bytes (twice this many output characters).
    static const NSUInteger spaceEveryThisManyBytes = 4UL;
    //If spaces is true, insert a line-break instead of a space every this many spaces.
    static const NSUInteger lineBreakEveryThisManySpaces = 4UL;
    const NSUInteger lineBreakEveryThisManyBytes = spaceEveryThisManyBytes * lineBreakEveryThisManySpaces;
    NSUInteger strLen = 2*nbBytes + (spaces ? nbBytes/spaceEveryThisManyBytes : 0);

    NSMutableString* hex = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithCapacity:strLen];
    for(NSUInteger i=0; i<nbBytes; ) {
        [hex appendFormat:@"%02X", bytes[i]];
        //We need to increment here so that the every-n-bytes computations are right.
        ++i;

        if (spaces) {
            if (i % lineBreakEveryThisManyBytes == 0) [hex appendString:@"\n"];
            else if (i % spaceEveryThisManyBytes == 0) [hex appendString:@" "];
        }
    }
    return [hex autorelease];
}
@end

Usage:

NSData* data = ...
NSString* hex = [data hexRepresentationWithSpaces_AS:YES];

Just wanted to add that @PassKits's method can be written very elegantly using Swift 3 since Data now is a collection.

extension Data { 
    var hex: String {
        var hexString = ""
        for byte in self {
            hexString += String(format: "%02X", byte)
        }
        
        return hexString
    }
}

Or ...

extension Data {
    var hex: String {
        return self.map { b in String(format: "%02X", b) }.joined()
    }
}

Or even ...

extension Data {
    var hex: String {
        return self.reduce("") { string, byte in
            string + String(format: "%02X", byte)
        }
    }
}

    

I liked @Erik_Aigner's answer the best. I just refactored it a bit:

NSData *data = [NSMutableData dataWithBytes:"acani" length:5];
NSUInteger dataLength = [data length];
NSMutableString *string = [NSMutableString stringWithCapacity:dataLength*2];
const unsigned char *dataBytes = [data bytes];
for (NSInteger idx = 0; idx < dataLength; ++idx) {
    [string appendFormat:@"%02x", dataBytes[idx]];
}

In Swift you can create an extension.

extension NSData {
    
    func toHexString() -> String {
        
        var hexString: String = ""
        let dataBytes =  UnsafePointer<CUnsignedChar>(self.bytes)
        
        for (var i: Int=0; i<self.length; ++i) {
            hexString +=  String(format: "%02X", dataBytes[i])
        }
     
        return hexString
    }
}

Then you can simply use:

let keyData: NSData = NSData(bytes: [0x00, 0xFF], length: 2)

let hexString = keyData.toHexString()
println("\(hexString)") // Outputs 00FF

Sadly there's no built-in way to produce hex from an NSData, but it's pretty easy to do yourself. The simple way is to just pass successive bytes into sprintf("%02x") and accumulate those into an NSMutableString. A faster way would be to build a lookup table that maps 4 bits into a hex character, and then pass successive nybbles into that table.

While it may not be the most efficient way to do it, if you're doing this for debugging, SSCrypto has a category on NSData which contains two methods to do this (one for creating an NSString of the raw byte values, and one which shows a prettier representation of it).

http://www.septicus.com/SSCrypto/trunk/SSCrypto.m

Seeing there is a Swift 1.2 snippet in the comments, here's the Swift 2 version since C style for loops are deprecated now. Gist with MIT license and two simple unit tests if you care.

Here's the code for your convenience:

import Foundation

extension NSData {
  var hexString: String {
    let pointer = UnsafePointer<UInt8>(bytes)
    let array = getByteArray(pointer)

    return array.reduce("") { (result, byte) -> String in
      result.stringByAppendingString(String(format: "%02x", byte))
    }
  }

  private func getByteArray(pointer: UnsafePointer<UInt8>) -> [UInt8] {
    let buffer = UnsafeBufferPointer<UInt8>(start: pointer, count: length)

    return [UInt8](buffer)
  }
}

Assuming you have already set:

NSData *myData = ...;

Simple solution:

NSString *strData = [[NSString alloc]initWithData:myData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(@"%@",strData);