Converting unsigned char * to hexstring - c++

Question

Below code takes a hex string(every byte is represented as its corresponidng hex value)
converts it to unsigned char * buffer and then converts back to hex string.
This code is testing the conversion from unsigned char* buffer to hex string
which I need to send over the network to a receiver process.
I chose hex string as unsigned char can be in range of 0 to 255 and there is no printable character after 127.
The below code just tells the portion that bugs me. Its in the comment.
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;
// converts a hexstring to corresponding integer. i.e "c0" - > 192
int convertHexStringToInt(const string & hexString)
{
stringstream geek;
int x=0;
geek << std::hex << hexString;
geek >> x;
return x;
}
// converts a complete hexstring to unsigned char * buffer
void convertHexStringToUnsignedCharBuffer(string hexString, unsigned char*
hexBuffer)
{
int i=0;
while(hexString.length())
{
string hexStringPart = hexString.substr(0,2);
hexString = hexString.substr(2);
int hexStringOneByte = convertHexStringToInt (hexStringPart);
hexBuffer[i] = static_cast<unsigned char>((hexStringOneByte & 0xFF)) ;
i++;
}
}
int main()
{
//below hex string is a hex representation of a unsigned char * buffer.
//this is generated by an excryption algorithm in unsigned char* format
//I am converting it to hex string to make it printable for verification pupose.
//and takes the hexstring as inpuit here to test the conversion logic.
string inputHexString = "552027e33844dd7b71676b963c0b8e20";
string outputHexString;
stringstream geek;
unsigned char * hexBuffer = new unsigned char[inputHexString.length()/2];
convertHexStringToUnsignedCharBuffer(inputHexString, hexBuffer);
for (int i=0;i<inputHexString.length()/2;i++)
{
geek <<std::hex << std::setw(2) << std::setfill('0')<<(0xFF&hexBuffer[i]); // this works
//geek <<std::hex << std::setw(2) << std::setfill('0')<<(hexBuffer[i]); -- > this does not work
// I am not able to figure out why I need to do the bit wise and operation with unsigned char "0xFF&hexBuffer[i]"
// without this the conversion does not work for individual bytes having ascii values more than 127.
}
geek >> outputHexString;
cout << "input hex string: " << inputHexString<<endl;
cout << "output hex string: " << outputHexString<<endl;
if(0 == inputHexString.compare(outputHexString))
cout<<"hex encoding successful"<<endl;
else
cout<<"hex encoding failed"<<endl;
if(NULL != hexBuffer)
delete[] hexBuffer;
return 0;
}
// output
// can some one explain ? I am sure its something silly that I am missing.

Answer 1

the C++20 way:
unsigned char* data = new unsigned char[]{ "Hello world\n\t\r\0" };
std::size_t data_size = sizeof("Hello world\n\t\r\0") - 1;
auto sp = std::span(data, data_size );
std::transform( sp.begin(), sp.end(),
std::ostream_iterator<std::string>(std::cout),
[](unsigned char c) -> std::string {
return std::format("{:02X}", int(c));
});
or if you want to store result into string:
std::string result{};
result.reserve(size * 2 + 1);
std::transform( sp.begin(), sp.end(),
std::back_inserter(result),
[](unsigned char c) -> std::string {
return std::format("{:02X}", int(c));
});
Output:
48656C6C6F20776F726C640A090D00

Answer 2

The output of an unsigned char is like the output of a char which obviously does not what the OP expects.
I tested the following on coliru:
#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
std::cout << "Output of (unsigned char)0xc0: "
<< std::hex << std::setw(2) << std::setfill('0') << (unsigned char)0xc0 << '\n';
return 0;
}
and got:
Output of (unsigned char)0xc0: 0�
This is caused by the std::ostream::operator<<() which is chosen out of the available operators. I looked on cppreference
operator<<(std::basic_ostream) and
std::basic_ostream::operator<<
and found
template< class Traits >
basic_ostream<char,Traits>& operator<<( basic_ostream<char,Traits>& os,
unsigned char ch );
in the former (with a little bit help from M.M).
The OP suggested a fix: bit-wise And with 0xff which seemed to work. Checking this in coliru.com:
#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
std::cout << "Output of (unsigned char)0xc0: "
<< std::hex << std::setw(2) << std::setfill('0') << (0xff & (unsigned char)0xc0) << '\n';
return 0;
}
Output:
Output of (unsigned char)0xc0: c0
Really, this seems to work. Why?
0xff is an int constant (stricly speaking: an integer literal) and has type int. Hence, the bit-wise And promotes (unsigned char)0xc0 to int as well, yields the result of type int, and hence, the std::ostream::operator<< for int is applied.
This is an option to solve this. I can provide another one – just converting the unsigned char to unsigned.
Where the promotion of unsigned char to int introduces a possible sign-bit extension (which is undesired in this case), this doesn't happen when unsigned char is converted to unsigned. The output stream operator for unsigned provides the intended output as well:
#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
std::cout << "Output of (unsigned char)0xc0: "
<< std::hex << std::setw(2) << std::setfill('0') << (unsigned)(unsigned char)0xc0 << '\n';
const unsigned char c = 0xc0;
std::cout << "Output of unsigned char c = 0xc0: "
<< std::hex << std::setw(2) << std::setfill('0') << (unsigned)c << '\n';
return 0;
}
Output:
Output of (unsigned char)0xc0: c0
Output of unsigned char c = 0xc0: c0
Live Demo on coliru