Converting long string of binary to hex c#

Question

I'm looking for a way to convert a long string of binary to a hex string.

the binary string looks something like this "0110011010010111001001110101011100110100001101101000011001010110001101101011"

I've tried using

hex = String.Format("{0:X2}", Convert.ToUInt64(hex, 2));

but that only works if the binary string fits into a Uint64 which if the string is long enough it won't.

is there another way to convert a string of binary into hex?

Thanks

Why would you expect Convert.ToUInt64() to be able to handle a string that represents a value larger than a UInt64 can hold? — Andrew Barber
– Andrew Barber, Commented Apr 10, 2011 at 14:14

Mitch Wheat · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-27 05:01:24Z

36

I just knocked this up. Maybe you can use as a starting point...

public static string BinaryStringToHexString(string binary)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(binary))
        return binary;

    StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder(binary.Length / 8 + 1);

    // TODO: check all 1's or 0's... throw otherwise

    int mod4Len = binary.Length % 8;
    if (mod4Len != 0)
    {
        // pad to length multiple of 8
        binary = binary.PadLeft(((binary.Length / 8) + 1) * 8, '0');
    }

    for (int i = 0; i < binary.Length; i += 8)
    {
        string eightBits = binary.Substring(i, 8);
        result.AppendFormat("{0:X2}", Convert.ToByte(eightBits, 2));
    }

    return result.ToString();
}

edited Aug 27, 2019 at 5:01

answered Apr 10, 2011 at 14:40

Mitch Wheat

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2 Comments

masterwok Over a year ago

I think the "throw otherwise" in the TODO was throwing me off. Seeing an answer with a TODO seems odd to me. Could you explain that please? I dont understand why this method would ever need to throw in those cases. Also, a null reference will occur if binary is null but maybe that was your intent. I would of probably added a guard to return null in those cases. Thank you!

Mitch Wheat Over a year ago

"Seeing an answer with a TODO seems odd to me: - not at all. I'm assuming the OP can add as many guards they deem necessary. I can't see their calling code nor do I know their full use case intent. A null check would be prudent of course; I will add one...

Aswin Murugesh · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-29 08:14:53Z

11

This might help you:

string HexConverted(string strBinary)
    {
        string strHex = Convert.ToInt32(strBinary,2).ToString("X");
        return strHex;
    }

edited Jun 29, 2013 at 8:14

Aswin Murugesh

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answered Jun 29, 2013 at 7:51

Pranav Labhe

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2 Comments

Ben Voigt Over a year ago

The question is concerned with strings of more than 64 bits.

ArnaldoRivera Over a year ago

Will not work if used with large binary strings

Soroush Falahati · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-16 10:37:01Z

6

Convert.ToInt32("1011", 2).ToString("X");

For string longer than this, you can simply break it into multiple bytes:

var binary = "0110011010010111001001110101011100110100001101101000011001010110001101101011";
var hex = string.Join(" ", 
            Enumerable.Range(0, binary.Length / 8)
            .Select(i => Convert.ToByte(binary.Substring(i * 8, 8), 2).ToString("X2")));

edited Nov 16, 2018 at 10:37

answered Sep 10, 2014 at 22:53

Soroush Falahati

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4 Comments

Fazal Over a year ago

can you please explain what is '2' , the second parameter

Alex McMillan Over a year ago

'2' tells the Convert.ToInt32 method that the string provided is base 2. Consider converting a hex string "AABBCC" to int` (which is 11189196): simply specify your string is in base 16, like this: Convert.ToInt32("AABBCC", 16)

Jesper Over a year ago

The question is concerned with strings containing numbers longer that 64bit so your solution won't work

Soroush Falahati Over a year ago

@Jesper, added more detail to the answer. Thanks for pointing this out.

Simeon Georgiev · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-21 14:37:10Z

I came up with this method. I am new to programming and C# but I hope you will appreciate it:

static string BinToHex(string bin)
{
    StringBuilder binary = new StringBuilder(bin);
    bool isNegative = false;
    if (binary[0] == '-')
    {
        isNegative = true;
        binary.Remove(0, 1);
    }

    for (int i = 0, length = binary.Length; i < (4 - length % 4) % 4; i++) //padding leading zeros
    {
        binary.Insert(0, '0');
    }

    StringBuilder hexadecimal = new StringBuilder();
    StringBuilder word = new StringBuilder("0000");
    for (int i = 0; i < binary.Length; i += 4)
    {
        for (int j = i; j < i + 4; j++)
        {
            word[j % 4] = binary[j];
        }

        switch (word.ToString())
        {
            case "0000": hexadecimal.Append('0'); break;
            case "0001": hexadecimal.Append('1'); break;
            case "0010": hexadecimal.Append('2'); break;
            case "0011": hexadecimal.Append('3'); break;
            case "0100": hexadecimal.Append('4'); break;
            case "0101": hexadecimal.Append('5'); break;
            case "0110": hexadecimal.Append('6'); break;
            case "0111": hexadecimal.Append('7'); break;
            case "1000": hexadecimal.Append('8'); break;
            case "1001": hexadecimal.Append('9'); break;
            case "1010": hexadecimal.Append('A'); break;
            case "1011": hexadecimal.Append('B'); break;
            case "1100": hexadecimal.Append('C'); break;
            case "1101": hexadecimal.Append('D'); break;
            case "1110": hexadecimal.Append('E'); break;
            case "1111": hexadecimal.Append('F'); break;
            default:
                return "Invalid number";
        }
    }

    if (isNegative)
    {
        hexadecimal.Insert(0, '-');
    }

    return hexadecimal.ToString();
}

Femaref · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-10 14:43:46Z

1

Considering four bits can be expressed by one hex value, you can simply go by groups of four and convert them seperately, the value won't change that way.

string bin = "11110110";

int rest = bin.Length % 4;
bin = bin.PadLeft(rest, '0'); //pad the length out to by divideable by 4

string output = "";

for(int i = 0; i <= bin.Length - 4; i +=4)
{
    output += string.Format("{0:X}", Convert.ToByte(bin.Substring(i, 4), 2));
}

answered Apr 10, 2011 at 14:43

Femaref

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Comments

Femaref · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-10 14:48:23Z

1

Considering four bits can be expressed by one hex value, you can simply go by groups of four and convert them seperately, the value won't change that way.

string bin = "11110110";

int rest = bin.Length % 4;
if(rest != 0)
    bin = new string('0', 4-rest) + bin; //pad the length out to by divideable by 4

string output = "";

for(int i = 0; i <= bin.Length - 4; i +=4)
{
    output += string.Format("{0:X}", Convert.ToByte(bin.Substring(i, 4), 2));
}

answered Apr 10, 2011 at 14:48

Femaref

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:00:27Z

If you want to iterate over the hexadecimal representation of each byte in the string, you could use the following extension. I've combined Mitch's answer with this.

static class StringExtensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<string> ToHex(this String s) {
        if (s == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException("s");

        int mod4Len = s.Length % 8;
        if (mod4Len != 0)
        {
            // pad to length multiple of 8
            s = s.PadLeft(((s.Length / 8) + 1) * 8, '0');
        }

        int numBitsInByte = 8;
        for (var i = 0; i < s.Length; i += numBitsInByte)
        {
            string eightBits = s.Substring(i, numBitsInByte);
            yield return string.Format("{0:X2}", Convert.ToByte(eightBits, 2));
        }
    }
}

Example:

string test = "0110011010010111001001110101011100110100001101101000011001010110001101101011";

foreach (var hexVal in test.ToHex())
{
    Console.WriteLine(hexVal);  
}

Prints

Marcos Arruda · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-14 17:32:51Z

1

If you're using .NET 4.0 or later and if you're willing to use System.Numerics.dll (for BigInteger class), the following solution works fine:

public static string ConvertBigBinaryToHex(string bigBinary)
{
    BigInteger bigInt = BigInteger.Zero;
    int exponent = 0;

    for (int i = bigBinary.Length - 1; i >= 0; i--, exponent++)
    {
        if (bigBinary[i] == '1')
            bigInt += BigInteger.Pow(2, exponent);
    }

    return bigInt.ToString("X");
}

edited Mar 14, 2017 at 17:32

answered Mar 14, 2017 at 17:26

Marcos Arruda

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Comments

Thomas Levesque · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-10 15:25:49Z

0

static string BinToHex(string bin)
{
    if (bin == null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException("bin");
    if (bin.Length % 8 != 0)
        throw new ArgumentException("The length must be a multiple of 8", "bin");

    var hex = Enumerable.Range(0, bin.Length / 8)
                     .Select(i => bin.Substring(8 * i, 8))
                     .Select(s => Convert.ToByte(s, 2))
                     .Select(b => b.ToString("x2"));
    return String.Join(null, hex);
}

answered Apr 10, 2011 at 15:25

Thomas Levesque

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Comments

Kingeh · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-27 20:52:16Z

0

Using LINQ

   string BinaryToHex(string binaryString)
            {
                var offset = 0;
                StringBuilder sb = new();
                
                while (offset < binaryString.Length)
                {
                    var nibble = binaryString
                        .Skip(offset)
                        .Take(4);

                    sb.Append($"{Convert.ToUInt32(nibble.toString()), 2):X}");
                    offset += 4;
                }

                return sb.ToString();

            }

edited Aug 27, 2021 at 20:52

answered Aug 23, 2021 at 17:29

Kingeh

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Comments

Felice Pollano · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-10 14:21:36Z

-1

You can take the input number four digit at a time. Convert this digit to ex ( as you did is ok ) then concat the string all together. So you obtain a string representing the number in hex, independetly from the size. Depending on where start MSB on your input string, may be the output string you obtain the way i described must be reversed.

answered Apr 10, 2011 at 14:21

Felice Pollano

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