How to turn a hex string into an unsigned char array?

Question

For example, I have a cstring \"E8 48 D8 FF FF 8B 0D\" (including spaces) which needs to be converted into the equivalent unsigned char array {0xE8,0x48,0

Answer 1

You'll never convince me that this operation is a performance bottleneck. The efficient way is to make good use of your time by using the standard C library:

static unsigned char gethex(const char *s, char **endptr) {
  assert(s);
  while (isspace(*s)) s++;
  assert(*s);
  return strtoul(s, endptr, 16);
}

unsigned char *convert(const char *s, int *length) {
  unsigned char *answer = malloc((strlen(s) + 1) / 3);
  unsigned char *p;
  for (p = answer; *s; p++)
    *p = gethex(s, (char **)&s);
  *length = p - answer;
  return answer;
}

Compiled and tested. Works on your example.