Converting Hex String to NSData in Swift

Question

I got the code to convert String to HEX-String in objective-C.

- (NSString *) CreateDataWithHexString:(NSString*)inputString
{
NSUInteger inLength = [inputSt         


        

Answer 1

Here is my Swifty 5 way to do it:

• does take care of "0x" prefixes
• use subscript instead of allocated Array(), no C style [i+1] too
• add .hexadecimal to String.data(using encoding:) -> Data?

.

String Extension:

    extension String {
        enum ExtendedEncoding {
            case hexadecimal
        }

        func data(using encoding:ExtendedEncoding) -> Data? {
            let hexStr = self.dropFirst(self.hasPrefix("0x") ? 2 : 0)

            guard hexStr.count % 2 == 0 else { return nil }

            var newData = Data(capacity: hexStr.count/2)

            var indexIsEven = true
            for i in hexStr.indices {
                if indexIsEven {
                    let byteRange = i...hexStr.index(after: i)
                    guard let byte = UInt8(hexStr[byteRange], radix: 16) else { return nil }
                    newData.append(byte)
                }
                indexIsEven.toggle()
            }
            return newData
        }
    }

Usage:

    "5413".data(using: .hexadecimal)
    "0x1234FF".data(using: .hexadecimal)

Tests:

    extension Data {
        var bytes:[UInt8] { // fancy pretty call: myData.bytes -> [UInt8]
            return [UInt8](self)
        }

        // Could make a more optimized one~
        func hexa(prefixed isPrefixed:Bool = true) -> String {
            return self.bytes.reduce(isPrefixed ? "0x" : "") { $0 + String(format: "%02X", $1) }
        }
    }

    print("000204ff5400".data(using: .hexadecimal)?.hexa() ?? "failed") // OK
    print("0x000204ff5400".data(using: .hexadecimal)?.hexa() ?? "failed") // OK
    print("541".data(using: .hexadecimal)?.hexa() ?? "failed") // fails
    print("5413".data(using: .hexadecimal)?.hexa() ?? "failed") // OK