Converting A String To Hexadecimal In Java

Question

I am trying to convert a string like \"testing123\" into hexadecimal form in java. I am currently using BlueJ.

And to convert it back, is it the same thing except b

Answer 1

All answers based on String.getBytes() involve encoding your string according to a Charset. You don't necessarily get the hex value of the 2-byte characters that make up your string. If what you actually want is the equivalent of a hex viewer, then you need to access the chars directly. Here's the function that I use in my code for debugging Unicode issues:

static String stringToHex(String string) {
  StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder(200);
  for (char ch: string.toCharArray()) {
    if (buf.length() > 0)
      buf.append(' ');
    buf.append(String.format("%04x", (int) ch));
  }
  return buf.toString();
}

Then, stringToHex("testing123") will give you:

0074 0065 0073 0074 0069 006e 0067 0031 0032 0033