Print an array as hex values in c#

Question

I want to print an array as hex. In the following code 'buffer' has been filled by 'XBaseRead'. I can print in hex using a foreach loop and the format "{0:X2}" but when I use string.join method with the same format it prints in decimal.

Here is the code:

byte[] buffer = new byte[160];
XBaseFunctions.XBaseRead(df2500VENDR, buffer, 160, false, XBaseFunctions.O_FLAG._O_BINARY);
foreach (byte i in buffer)
{
    Console.Write("{0:X2} ", i);
}
Console.WriteLine("\n");
Console.WriteLine("{0:X2}", string.Join(", ", buffer));

Here is the output:

-----------------Dump of raw buffer-----------------

F0 F0 F0 F0 C1 F0 F1 F0 C1 40 C1 D5 E3 C8 D6 D5 E8 40 50 40 E2 D6 D5 E2 40 C9 D5
 C3 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 F1 F4 F5 F0 40 E
6 40 F2 F1 E2 E3 40 E2 E3 5C C5 D9 C9 C5 6B 40 D7 C1 40 40 40 F1 F6 F5 F0 F2 40
40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40
 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 00 00 00 00 00 0
0 00 00 00 00 00 00 F9 60 03 A7 7E 3E 7E 3F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 40 40 40


240, 240, 240, 240, 193, 240, 241, 240, 193, 64, 193, 213, 227, 200, 214, 213, 2
32, 64, 80, 64, 226, 214, 213, 226, 64, 201, 213, 195, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 6
4, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 241, 244, 245, 240, 64, 2
30, 64, 242, 241, 226, 227, 64, 226, 227, 92, 197, 217, 201, 197, 107, 64, 215,
193, 64, 64, 64, 241, 246, 245, 240, 242, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64
, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64
, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 64, 0,
 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 249, 96, 3, 167, 126, 62, 126, 63, 0, 0, 0, 0,
 0, 0, 0, 0, 64, 64, 64, 64

So the question is Why does the {0:X2} work for the foreach loop but no for the string.join method?

Also, if someone could tell me how to limit each line to 16 bytes then I would appreciate that information too.

Reinderien · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-05 01:42:59Z

6

You should apply ToString("X2") on every byte first :

Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", buffer.Select(b => b.ToString("X2"));

edited Jan 5, 2022 at 1:42

Reinderien

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answered Oct 29, 2015 at 0:29

w.b

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1 Comment

Jörg.Jacobs Over a year ago

Please be sure to add "using System.Linq;" (for 'Select') on top of the file, and use the right number of closing parenthesis: using System.Linq; Console.Writeline(string.Join(", ", buffer.Select(b => b.ToString("X2"))));

B.K. · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-29 00:48:33Z

3

Because when you're doing a foreach loop, you're passing a byte to the formatted Console.WriteLine(). However, you're passing a string of the entire joined buffer in the other instance, as string.Join(", ", buffer) returns a string.

foreach (byte i in buffer)
{
    Console.Write("{0:X2} ", i); // <- A byte is being passed.
}

Console.WriteLine("{0:X2}", string.Join(", ", buffer)); // <- A string is being passed.

I would do use this:

 var str = string.Join(", ", buffer.Select(x => string.Format("{0:X2}", x)));
 Console.WriteLine(str);

...or this:

var str = string.Concat(buffer.Select(i => string.Format("{0:X2}, ", i)))
Console.WriteLine(str);

Although the first one doesn't give a trailing comma, so I would use that over the second method. Thought I'd share the different ways of accomplishing it, though.

Hopefully you're familiar with Linq, so I'm not going to go into great detail as far as what's going on, as it's pretty self-explanatory if you understand Linq.

edited Oct 29, 2015 at 0:48

answered Oct 29, 2015 at 0:29

B.K.

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2 Comments

eddyq Over a year ago

Can someone please tell me how to limit the number of bytes printed to 16 per line?

B.K. Over a year ago

@user3389362 That's a different question and should be submitted as such. What I mean is that you should create a new question for that.

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