How to convert a byte array (MD5 hash) into a string (36 chars)?

Question

I\'ve got a byte array that was created using a hash function. I would like to convert this array into a string. So far so good, it will give me hexadecimal string.

Answer 1

Usually a power of 2 is used - that way one character maps to a fixed number of bits. An alphabet of 32 bits for instance would map to 5 bits. The only challenge in that case is how to deserialize variable-length strings.

For 36 bits you could treat the data as a large number, and then:

• divide by 36
• add the remainder as character to your result
• repeat until the division results in 0

Easier said than done perhaps.