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C# hex to byte array loop

I have the following function:
public void SetTagData(string _data)
{
string data = _data;
byte[] ba = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(data);
string hexString = BitConverter.ToString(ba);
hexString = hexString.Replace("-", "");
var blockStart = 0;
var bufferHexBlocks = String.Empty;
try
{
for (var i = 0; i < hexString.Length; i++)
{
var byteList = new List<byte>();
byte[] datablockKey = ConvertHelpers.ConvertHexStringToByteArray(i.ToString().PadLeft(2, '0'));
var block = hexString.Substring(blockStart, 8);
byte[] datablockValue = ConvertHelpers.ConvertHexStringToByteArray(block);
byteList.AddRange(datablockKey);
byteList.AddRange(datablockValue);
_reader.Protocol("wb", byteList.ToArray());
blockStart += 8;
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
console.log(ex.message);
}
}
The data coming in is a bunch of hex as a string. I need to split this hex string into batches of 8 characters, append an incrementing 0 padded hex number from 00 to 1f and send this new string as a byte array to the _reader.Protocol function, which accepts a string wb as first parameter and the block as the second.
For example incoming data is:
string data = "3930313B36313B5350542D53504C3B3830303B3B352E373B3B303B303B3B3B34353036383B4E3B4E3B"
I need to send the following to the _reader.Protocol object:
(incremented padded hex 01, 02, 03, ... , 0f) and the first 8 characters of the data string, then the next, and so on as a byte array.
[013930313B], [0236313B53], etc.
I think I'm getting close... but missing something...
My problem at the moment is that I can't figure out how to loop in blocks of 8 and if the hex string is say 82 characters instead of 80 (multiple of 8), then how would I grab the last two characters without getting a IndexOutofRange exception.
Note: This is for a Windows CE application, so no new C# features please.

This below will work fine in conjunction with this answer and the sample string data given.
public static byte[] Parse(string data)
{
var count = data.Length / 8; //Might be worth throwing exception with any remainders unless you trust the source.
var needle = 0;
List<byte> result = new List<byte>(); //Inefficient but I'm being lazy
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
char[] buffer = new char[8];
data.CopyTo(needle, buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
//To get around the odd number when adding the prefixed count byte, send the hex string to the convert method separately.
var bytes = ConvertHexStringToByteArray(new string(buffer)); //Taken From https://stackoverflow.com/a/8235530/6574422
//As the count is less than 255, seems safe to parse to single byte
result.Add(byte.Parse((i + 1).ToString()));
result.AddRange(bytes);
needle += 8;
}
return result.ToArray();
}

I'm figured it out. It might not be the most efficient solution but it works just fine. I did it using a for loop inside a for loop.
In case anyone is interested here is the final code:
public void SetTagData(string _data)
{
string data = _data;
byte[] ba = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(data);
string hexString = BitConverter.ToString(ba);
hexString = hexString.Replace("-", "");
var blockStart = 0;
try
{
_reader.Protocol("s");
for(var count = 0; count < 16; count++)
{
var byteList = new List<byte>();
byte[] datablockKey = ConvertHelpers.ConvertHexStringToByteArray(count.ToString("X2"));
byteList.AddRange(datablockKey);
for (var innerCount = 0; innerCount < 4; innerCount++)
{
var block = String.Empty;
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(hexString.Substring(blockStart, 2)))
{
block = hexString.Substring(blockStart, 2);
}
else
{
block = "20";
}
byte[] datablockValue = ConvertHelpers.ConvertHexStringToByteArray(block);
byteList.AddRange(datablockValue);
blockStart += 2;
}
_reader.Protocol("wb", byteList.ToArray());
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
}
}

How to XOR a MD5 hash and return a 32 character string?

How do I further encrypt a MD5 hash by XOR'ing it with a string of variable size (not bigger than 32 characters) ?
I would like the result of the XOR to be a 32 character string as well.
What i have tried so far is:
convert the md5 string to binary
convert second string to binary
pad second binary with 0's (to the left) until both binaries are of equal length
iterate the binary representations and XOR them
convert the XOR'ed result to a string
The approach may be wrong, im not sure how to do it. My problem is, when converting the result of the XOR, it is not a 32 character long string, as I would like it to be.
Sample code (equal length strings in this case):
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var md51 = ToBinary(ConvertToByteArray(CalculateMD5Hash("Maaa"), Encoding.ASCII));
var md52 = ToBinary(ConvertToByteArray(CalculateMD5Hash("Moo"), Encoding.ASCII));
List<int> xoredResult = new List<int>();
for (int i = 0; i < md51.Length; i++)
{
var string1 = md51[i];
var string2 = md52[i];
var xor = string1 ^ string2;
xoredResult.Add(xor);
}
var resultingString = string.Join("", xoredResult);
Console.WriteLine(resultingString.Length);
var data = GetBytesFromBinaryString(resultingString);
var text = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data);
}
public static byte[] ConvertToByteArray(string str, Encoding encoding)
{
return encoding.GetBytes(str);
}
public static String ToBinary(Byte[] data)
{
return string.Join("", data.Select(byt => Convert.ToString(byt, 2).PadLeft(8, '0')));
}
public static Byte[] GetBytesFromBinaryString(String binary)
{
var list = new List<Byte>();
for (int i = 0; i < binary.Length; i += 8)
{
String t = binary.Substring(i, 8);
list.Add(Convert.ToByte(t, 2));
}
return list.ToArray();
}
public static string CalculateMD5Hash(string input)
{
// step 1, calculate MD5 hash from input
MD5 md5 = System.Security.Cryptography.MD5.Create();
byte[] inputBytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(input);
byte[] hash = md5.ComputeHash(inputBytes);
// step 2, convert byte array to hex string
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < hash.Length; i++)
{
sb.Append(hash[i].ToString("X2"));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
}

xoring a string with what is essentially random bytes is not guaranteed to give you a valid string as a output. Your var text = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data); is likely failing because you are passing it a non valid string in byte form. You must use something like var text = Convert.ToBase64String(data) to be able to represent the random data without loss of information in the process.

C# - Get Integer Byte Array in String

I have a random integer value which I need to represent in String as a Byte array. For example:
int value = 32;
String strValue = getStringByteArray(value);
Console.WriteLine(strValue); // should write: " \0\0\0"
If value = 11 then getStringByteArray(value) shuld return "\v\0\0\0".
If value = 13 then getStringByteArray(value) shuld return "\r\0\0\0".
And so on.
Any idea on how to implement the method getStringByteArray(int value) in C#?
UPDATE
This is the code that receives the data from the C# NamedPipe Server:
bool CFilePipe::ReadString(int m_handle, string &value)
{
//--- check for data
if(WaitForRead(sizeof(int)))
{
ResetLastError();
int size=FileReadInteger(m_handle);
if(GetLastError()==0)
{
//--- check for data
if(WaitForRead(size))
{
value=FileReadString(m_handle,size);
return(size==StringLen(value));
}
}
}
//--- failure
return(false);
}

Don't take this approach at all. You should be writing to a binary stream of some description - and write the binary data for the length of the packet/message, followed by the message itself. For example:
BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(stream);
byte[] data = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(text);
writer.Write(data.Length);
writer.Write(data);
Then at the other end, you'd use:
BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(stream);
int length = reader.ReadInt32();
byte[] data = reader.ReadBytes(length);
string text = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(data);
No need to treat binary data as text at all.

Well. First of all you should get bytes from integer. You can do it with BitConverter:
var bytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(value);
Next, here is three variants. First - if you want to get result in binary format. Just take all your bytes and write as it is:
var str = string.Concat(bytes.Select(b => Convert.ToString(b, 2)));
Second variant. If you want convert your byte array to hexadecimal string:
var hex = BitConverter.ToString(array).Replace("-","");
Third variant. Your representation ("\v\0\0\0") - it is simple converting byte to char. Use this:
var s = bytes.Aggregate(string.Empty, (current, t) => current + Convert.ToChar(t));

This should help with that.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Random rand = new Random();
int number = rand.Next(1, 1000);
byte[] intBytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(number);
string answer = "";
for (int i = 0; i < intBytes.Length; i++)
{
answer += intBytes[i] + #"\";
}
Console.WriteLine(answer);
Console.WriteLine(number);
Console.ReadKey();
}
}

Obviously, you should implement two steps to achieve the goal:
Extract bytes from the integer in the appropriate order (little-endian or big-endian, it's up to you to decide), using bit arithmetics.
Merge extracted bytes into string using the format you need.
Possible implementation:
using System;
using System.Text;
public class Test
{
public static void Main()
{
Int32 value = 5152;
byte[] bytes = new byte[4];
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
bytes[i] = (byte)((value >> i * 8) & 0xFF);
}
StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
result.Append("\\" + bytes[i].ToString("X2"));
}
Console.WriteLine(result);
}
}
Ideone snippet: http://ideone.com/wLloo1

I think you are saying that you want to convert each byte into a character literal, using escape sequences for the non printable characters.
After converting the integer to 4 bytes, cast to char. Then use Char.IsControl() to identify the non-printing characters. Use the printable char directly, and use a lookup table to find the corresponding escape sequence for each non-printable char.

BinaryWriter problem - "code adds some byte between Write() method"

I am try to do some code using BinaryWriter and Then BinaryReader.
When I wanna write I use method Write().
But the problem is that between two lines of Write method there appears a new byte which is in ASCII table in decimal 31 (sometines 24).
You can see it on this image:
You can see that byte at index 4 (5th byte) is of ASCII decimal value 31. I didnt insert it there. As you can see 1st 4 bytes are reserved for a number (Int32), next are other data (some text mostly - this is not important now).
As you can see from the code i write:
- into 1st line a number 10
- into 2nd line text "This is some text..."
How come came that 5th byte (dec 31) in between??
And this is the code I have:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//
//// SEND - RECEIVE:
//
SendingData();
Console.ReadLine();
}
private static void SendingData()
{
int[] commandNumbers = { 1, 5, 10 }; //10 is for the users (when they send some text)!
for (int i = 0; i < commandNumbers.Length; i++)
{
//convert to byte[]
byte[] allBytes;
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
using (BinaryWriter bw = new BinaryWriter(ms))
{
bw.Write(commandNumbers[i]); //allocates 1st 4 bytes - FOR MAIN COMMANDS!
if (commandNumbers[i] == 10)
bw.Write("This is some text at command " + commandNumbers[i]); //HERE ON THIS LINE IS MY QUESTION!!!
}
allBytes = ms.ToArray();
}
//convert back:
int valueA = 0;
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var b in GetData(allBytes).Select((a, b) => new { Value = a, Index = b }))
{
if (b.Index == 0) //1st num
valueA = BitConverter.ToInt32(b.Value, 0);
else //other text
{
foreach (byte _byte in b.Value)
sb.Append(Convert.ToChar(_byte));
}
}
if (sb.ToString().Length == 0)
sb.Append("ONLY COMMAND");
Console.WriteLine("Command = {0} and Text is \"{1}\".", valueA, sb.ToString());
}
}
private static IEnumerable<byte[]> GetData(byte[] data)
{
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(data))
{
using (BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(ms))
{
int j = 0;
byte[] buffer = new byte[4];
for (int i = 0; i < data.Length; i++)
{
buffer[j++] = data[i];
if (i == 3) //SENDING COMMAND DATA
{
yield return buffer;
buffer = new byte[1];
j = 0;
}
else if (i > 3) //SENDING TEXT
{
yield return buffer;
j = 0;
}
}
}
}
}

If you look at the documentation for Write(string), you'll see that it writes a length-prefixed string. So the 31 is the number of characters in your string -- perfectly normal.

You should probably be using Encoding.GetBytes and then write the bytes instead of writing a string
for example
bw.Write(
Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("This is some text at command " + commandNumbers[i])
);

When a string is written to a binary stream, the first thing it does is write the length of the string. The string "This is some text at command 10" has 31 characters, which is the value you're seeing.

You should check the documentation of methods you use before asking questions about them:
A length-prefixed string represents the string length by prefixing to
the string a single byte or word that contains the length of that
string. This method first writes the length of the string as a UTF-7
encoded unsigned integer, and then writes that many characters to the
stream by using the BinaryWriter instance's current encoding.
;-)
(Though in fact it is an LEB128 and not UTF-7, according to Wikipedia).

The reason this byte is there because you're adding a variable amount of information, so the length is needed. If you were to add two strings, where would you know where the first ended and the second began?
If you really don't want or need that length byte, you can always convert the string to a byte array and use that.

Ok, here is my edited code. I removed BinaryWriter (while BinaryReader is still there!!), and now it works very well - no more extra bytes.
What do you thing? Is there anytihng to do better, to make it run faster?
Expecially Im interesting for that foreach loop, which read from another method that is yield return type!!
New Code:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//
//// SEND - RECEIVE:
//
SendingData();
Console.ReadLine();
}
private static void SendingData()
{
int[] commands = { 1, 2, 3 };
// 1 - user text
// 2 - new game
// 3 - join game
// ...
for (int i = 0; i < commands.Length; i++)
{
//convert to byte[]
byte[] allBytes;
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
// 1.st - write a command:
ms.Write(BitConverter.GetBytes(commands[i]), 0, 4);
// 2nd - write a text:
if (commands[i] == 1)
{
//some example text (like that user sends it):
string myText = "This is some text at command " + commands[i];
byte[] myBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(myText);
ms.Write(myBytes, 0, myBytes.Length);
}
allBytes = ms.ToArray();
}
//convert back:
int valueA = 0;
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var b in ReadingData(allBytes).Select((a, b) => new { Value = a, Index = b }))
{
if (b.Index == 0)
{
valueA = BitConverter.ToInt32(b.Value, 0);
}
else
{
sb.Append(Convert.ToChar(b.Value[0]));
}
}
if (sb.ToString().Length == 0)
sb.Append("ONLY COMMAND");
Console.WriteLine("Command = {0} and Text is \"{1}\".", valueA, sb.ToString());
}
}
private static IEnumerable<byte[]> ReadingData(byte[] data)
{
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(data))
{
using (BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(ms))
{
int j = 0;
byte[] buffer = new byte[4];
for (int i = 0; i < data.Length; i++)
{
buffer[j++] = data[i];
if (i == 3) //SENDING COMMAND DATA
{
yield return buffer;
buffer = new byte[1];
j = 0;
}
else if (i > 3) //SENDING TEXT
{
yield return buffer;
j = 0;
}
}
}
}
}

Dotnet Hex string to Java

Have a problem, much like this post: How to read a .NET Guid into a Java UUID.
Except, from a remote svc I get a hex str formatted like this: ABCDEFGH-IJKL-MNOP-QRST-123456.
I need to match the GUID.ToByteArray() generated .net byte array GH-EF-CD-AB-KL-IJ-OP-MN- QR- ST-12-34-56 in Java for hashing purposes.
I'm kinda at a loss as to how to parse this. Do I cut off the QRST-123456 part and perhaps use something like the Commons IO EndianUtils on the other part, then stitch the 2 arrays back together as well? Seems way too complicated.
I can rearrange the string, but I shouldn't have to do any of these. Mr. Google doesn't wanna help me neither..
BTW, what is the logic in Little Endian land that keeps those last 6 char unchanged?
Yes, for reference, here's what I've done {sorry for 'answer', but had trouble formatting it properly in comment}:
String s = "3C0EA2F3-B3A0-8FB0-23F0-9F36DEAA3F7E";
String[] splitz = s.split("-");
String rebuilt = "";
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
// Split into 2 char chunks. '..' = nbr of chars in chunks
String[] parts = splitz[i].split("(?<=\\G..)");
for (int k = parts.length -1; k >=0; k--) {
rebuilt += parts[k];
}
}
rebuilt += splitz[3]+splitz[4];
I know, it's hacky, but it'll do for testing.

Make it into a byte[] and skip the first 3 bytes:
package guid;
import java.util.Arrays;
public class GuidConvert {
static byte[] convertUuidToBytes(String guid) {
String hexdigits = guid.replaceAll("-", "");
byte[] bytes = new byte[hexdigits.length()/2];
for (int i = 0; i < bytes.length; i++) {
int x = Integer.parseInt(hexdigits.substring(i*2, (i+1)*2), 16);
bytes[i] = (byte) x;
}
return bytes;
}
static String bytesToHexString(byte[] bytes) {
StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder();
for (byte b : bytes) {
int i = b >= 0 ? b : (int) b + 256;
buf.append(Integer.toHexString(i / 16));
buf.append(Integer.toHexString(i % 16));
}
return buf.toString();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
String guid = "3C0EA2F3-B3A0-8FB0-23F0-9F36DEAA3F7E";
byte[] bytes = convertUuidToBytes(guid);
System.err.println("GUID = "+ guid);
System.err.println("bytes = "+ bytesToHexString(bytes));
byte[] tail = Arrays.copyOfRange(bytes, 3, bytes.length);
System.err.println("tail = "+ bytesToHexString(tail));
}
}

The last group of 6 bytes is not reversed because it is an array of bytes. The first four groups are reversed because they are a four-byte integer followed by three two-byte integers.